On December 15, in the hall of the Bulgarian Consulate in New York, the trio Aram will present works by Bulgarian and American composers. Emmalie Tello – clarinet, Grace Coolidge – violin, and Lora Al-Ahmad – piano will perform works by George Gershwin, Florence Price, Samuel Barber, Peter Hristoskov, Lora Al-Ahmad.
“Bulgarian Concert Evenings” in New York is a festival presenting classical and contemporary chamber music performed by famous Bulgarian and foreign artists. Due to the pandemic, some of the recent concerts were online, but the tradition has been revived since the end of October.
The festival was created by Pavlina Dokovska who initially was in charge of the organization. In recent years, the organization has been carried out by Lora Chekoratova, in collaboration with Anna Stoycheva and several other Bulgarian expats.
Over the years, dozens of Bulgarian musicians have participated in the festival, including the radio quartet MusicAnts, which opened the festival’s 5th season with a concert at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
The upcoming event is organized by Lora Al-Ahmad in honour of Pavlina Dokovska. And the programme will also include the world premiere of "Seven and one Nights" by Bulgarian composer Gheorghi Arnaoudov. The work is inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' "Seven Nights", says the composer. Some time ago, Lora Al-Ahmad, a Bulgarian pianist and composer in New York, told Gheorghi Arnaoudov that they were organizing a concert by Bulgarian and American authors.
"They wanted to include a solo clarinet piece, which I learned from Lora, whom I've known for a long time. But we decided that it was better to do something for the trio”,says Gheorghi Arnaoudov. "It was at this point that I took brief notes on a similar work inspired by Borges' Seven Nights. This is a fiction, a poetic fantasy on various topics chosen by the writer - human nightmares, dreams, Buddhism, poetry, blindness, Kabbalah… I tried to transfer poetic moves from the text to the musical work, as well as I tried completely new techniques of writing music. The trip is very interesting - violin, bass clarinet and piano. This way of working is interesting - remotely. Through the new media, in the new conditions we live, you can even rehearse from a distance. The musicians started sending me individual fragments, we made corrections”.
The presentation of Bulgarian music, the participation of Bulgarian musicians in this event, as well as the whole concert series in New York, is something really wonderful, composer Gheorghi Arnaoudov adds.
“I want to say one more thing - we saw that the world turned out to be strong and despite the pandemic people organize concerts, engage in art, do not stop looking for new paths and ways of thinking. Despite the difficult situation, we have the opportunity to cope and we must be aware of that!"
Lora Al-Ahmad performs sonata of Barber, included in the concert.
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