The European Day of Jewish Culture was first held in 1999, and since 2000, Bulgaria has been observing the open doors-type event as well. For 2008, the day is Sunday September 7 and the theme is music. The public is invited to discover Jewish music and the influences that it has had on world music throughout the ages, through visits to Jewish community centres and places of worship, concerts and theatre.

Organisers at the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage said that liturgical music, called 'chazzanu't in Hebrew, and secular folk music are an "indelible part of the Jewish heritage", something that can be both religious and secular, depending on the context.

There are three major currents of Jewish music, described on the day's official website as: "Mizrahi, or oriental music, which is the music of the Jewish people who have lived during centuries among oriental and Arabic cultures; Ashkenazi or occidental music, made by Ashkenazim, including Klezmer music from Eastern Europe, which extended from there to the rest of Europe and America; and Sephardic music, which has its origin in the Jewish communities around the Mediterranean."

In Rousse, the day will be observed on Sunday at the Shalom cultural centre, from 10am to noon, with live music, recordings of traditional melodies and more, ruseinfo.net wrote on September 5.

In Bourgas, the festivities will be marked with performances of traditional Jewish music and works by famous composers of Jewish heritage, such as by Mendelssohn, Gershwin and Pancho Vladigerov. Participating will be the Bourgas pianist Krassimira Chervenkova and the singers Niki, Maria and Ana Zartovi. As written on the day's official website, other such musical figures include include J Fromental Lévy Halévy and Jacques Offenbach, Arnold Schoenberg and the libretto writer Lorenzo da Ponte, who penned librettos for some of Mozart's operas, including Le Nozze di Figaro (1786).

The Bourgas event takes place at Petko Zadgorski Art Gallery at 6pm.

Sofia will mark European Day of Jewish Culture with a classical music concert on September 6 at 7.30pm in Jerusalem Hall of the Jewish cultural centre (50 Alexander Stamboliiski Blvd). Performing that evening with a philharmonic string quartet will be Maier Frank, Itsko Fintsi, Zhanet Benoun, Daniela Dimova, Ida Fintsi, Nichko Issakov and Dorian Molhov, Bulgarian National Radio reported on September 5.

A couple months ago, Dimova, a soprano from Varna Opera, along with the pianist Benoun-Nikolaeva release two albums of Jewish music, Standart daily reported on September 4. The disk was arranged by Jules Levi and contained 12 songs in Ladino, the language of medieval Spanish refugees when they fled to Israel. The second was arranged by Nikolai Kaufmann, with songs in the Ashkenazi dialect, which is spoken by Jewish people in Germany, Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic.

The next day, an official opening ceremony will be held at 10.30am in the Central Sofia Synagogue, the largest synagogue on the Balkans. From 4pm to 6pm in front of Ivan Vazov National Theatre, an outdoor concert will be given, entitled Music - The Bridge That Connects Us, with the participation of Veli Chaoushev, Lika Eshkenazi and the Jewish vocal group Dulce Canto, Eva Volitzer and an accoustic trio, Georgi Velichkov on the accordion, and Ta-Koli, the "Voice of Tel Aviv". The programme wraps up with a show by Simo Lazarov at Nikolai Binev Youth Theatre at 7pm, Bulgaria's Culture Ministry wrote on its website September 3.

The ministry also wrote that at 11.30am on the 7th, a documentary photography and art exhibition by Zafer Galibov and Svetlana Avdala, called Europe, the Jews and Music, will be opened at 9.30am at the Jewish History Museum. The museum is located in the synagogue complex at 16 Ekzarh Yosif Str in Sofia. A music-poetry recital by Alexandra Ivoilova and Kristian Simeonov will also be held.