March 11 is the opening day of the March Music Days festival in the northern town of Ruse. The prestigious international festival will be held for the 61st time. Its program includes 7 orchestral concerts, 11 ensemble concerts and an opera performance, the organizers announced. The festival will take place from March 11 until March 27. More than 600 performers from 8 countries - Argentina, Germany, France, Romania, Lithuania, Russia, Macedonia and Bulgaria - will take part in it.

The opening concert is traditionally performed by Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra. On Friday, under the baton of Maestro Emil Tabakov, the concert will feature Four Sketches for Large Orchestra by Dimitar Nenov, Symphonic Suite The Sea by Claude Debussy and Piano Concerto in G major by Maurice Ravel. Soloist is the world-famous pianist Simon Trpceski (Republic of North Macedonia), who will perform for the first time in Bulgaria.

Among the highlights of the program is the chamber concert of Bulgarian pianist Svetlin Rusev and Armenian violin player Vahan Mardirossian - both are artists with remarkable international careers. On March 14 they will present works for violin and piano by Johannes Brahms. The two musicians will also perform on March 19 with Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.

Under the baton of Vahan Mardirossian, Bulgaria’s national orchestra will play Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture, Scriabin's Symphony No. 2 and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto, with soloist Svetlin Rusev.

On Saturday, March 12, the audience will relish the concert of the Musica Nova ensemble with conductor Dragomir Yosifov. This concert is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Bulgarian composer Lazar Nikolov, one of the founders of the Bulgarian avant-garde in the years after World War II. Lazar Nikolov is author of two operas, six symphonies, instrumental concertos, chamber works, etc.

Romanian National Symphony Orchestra will perform on March 13. It will present its program "Onward... to the Classics". On March 17 the attractive Romanian Vision String Quartet will offer the festival audience the quartet of Dvorak - Op. 106, along with their attractive work "Spectrum".

As stated in the quartet's professional biography, the four musicians set out to respectfully refocus the way classical music is presented and perceived by both traditional and brand new audiences.

The program of the festival also includes the Modigliani String Quartet, the Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble and the premiere of Ernani by Giuseppe Verdi, a production of  State Opera-Ruse directed by Orlin Anastasov. The world-famous Argentinian tenor Jose Cura will conduct the opera. He will also be on stage on March 20, when he and Bulgarian soprano Tsvetelina Vasileva will give a chamber concert with songs by Bulgarian and Argentinian composers.

The March Music Days have their origins back in 1961. Over the years it has hosted world-class orchestras and chamber ensembles as well as great world artists from all over the world, including Dmitry Shostakovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Kurt Masur, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mischa Maisky, Krzysztof Penderecki, Patrick Gallois, Jordi Savall and many others.