MusicArtissimo Fest opens on 15 May at the Sofia city art gallery with “Solo” - the first title on the programme of the new chamber music forum featuring solo violin pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Niccolo Paganini, Eugène Ysaÿe and André Jolivet, performed by renowned violinist Svetlin Roussev, concertmaster of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Artistic director of the festival is Mila Pavlova – a well-known flute player, member of the Pilecadone Wind Quintet for many years and main organizer of the “Balabanov’s house music days” festival in Plovdiv. She says that the idea of MusicArtissimo Fest was born a long time ago, and that the first edition of the festival had been planned for the end of last year. She says further that she has for years wanted to throw a festival bridge, so to speak, between Plovdiv and Sofia, presenting some of the Balabanov’s House concerts in Sofia, as well as a programme specifically drawn up for the capital city.

“Maybe the time has now come to do that,” says Mila in an interview for Radio Bulgaria. “We have the support of the “Culture” national fund and we are very grateful. The two festivals will be taking place at different times and with different programmes. What unites them is the high standard of the performers, as previously we shall not make any compromises. I have always said that the more musical events there are, the greater the diversity of the cultural scene, the better we are doing our job. Culture takes hard work.”

The selection of performers begins with Svetlin Roussev’s “Solo”

“One of our dreams that is now coming true is this extraordinary concert. A unique event! The most difficult works for solo violin in one programme, with Svetlin Roussev, one of the foremost violinists of our time. We heard him in 2019 in Plovdiv. You can imagine the energy, the skill it takes for a performer to face the audience alone, with just his professionalism and enormous charisma.

On the following day the programme features a concert by performers who are very young– school and university students, holders of prestigious awards from international and national competitions, names we ought to take note of because they are our future. We shall present Ivaylo Vassilev – piano, Lora Markova – violin, Victor Teodosiev – French horn, Demetra-Angalica – percussion, Momchil Pandev – cello.

We called the third concert “Golden Bulgarian Voices Glorify Boris Christoff”. It falls on 18 May, the birthday of the great Bulgarian basso, and will feature young singers who have earned international recognition on the world’s stages - Bozhidar Bozhkilov, Violeta Radomirska, Stefani Krusteva, Mihail Mihaylov. At this point we are only announcing the first three concerts, we shall give details of the concerts to follow very soon. We invite all people who love beautiful music to the concert “Solo” – and I can assure you, it will be like nothing else on earth.”

Photos: MusicArtissimo Fest