‘Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra’

The programme of the inaugural concert of Bulgaria’s EU Council Presidency features several masterpieces of the European repertoire and of Bulgaria’s musical heritage, including classical music and folklore songs. The audience will be treated to excerpts from Verdi’s operas (Luisa Miller, Don Carlos, Il Trovatore and La Forza del Destino) as well as Chopin’s sumptuous Piano Concerto No. 2. Other highlights include works by Bulgarian composers such as Vesselin Stoyanov, a veritable icon of twentieth-century Bulgarian music, as well as Alexander Tekeliev, who studied under Stoyanov and who is considered a key figure on Sofia’s cultural scene and an eminent ambassador of Bulgarian music because of his prolific output and career in education. Bulgaria’s oldest symphonic orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, will be conducted by Nayden Todorov and accompanied by the Vanya Moneva choir and several exceptional soloists, including the soprano Sonia Yoncheva (1st Laureate of the prestigious Operalia-Placido Domingo competition in 2010) and the pianist Lyudmil Angelov whose performances of Chopin’s works have earned him many accolades.