It is autumn. The days are shorter, but you do not want to go to bed any earlier. With the daylight gone and the nights cool, think of doing something inside: listen to live music.
Four events in October will feature four different styles of music in concerts and festivals around Bulgaria.
From October 8 to 11 2008, Plovdiv forges ahead in its Autumn Arts Salon, with Plovdiv Jazz Evenings. Performing are the Austrian-Bulgarian Vladigerovi Brothers Band and the jazzy Zhivko Petrov-Angel Zaberski Project on October 8; the Bulgarian pop group Te and the Bulgarian-German-Greek Vladko Kaparov Quartet on October 9; guitarist Larry Coryell, electric bassist Jeff Berlin and drummer Asaf Sirkis on October 10; and the Borislav Yassenov Quartet and the Vlatko Stefanov Band, with special guest Teodosii Spassov on kaval on October 11.
All shows start at 8pm.
Elsewhere, the Dresden, Germany-based Marracash Orchestra gives its first performance in Veliko Turnovo at Club Melon on October 9. The group describes its music as “wild and crazy”, a mix of reggae, Balkan rhythms, psychedelic, punk and hip-hop, with the vocalist creating the musical impact of 1000 voices. Nothing really North African, though: the name is a play on the word “cash”.
Following Veliko Turnovo, Marracash Orchestra moves to Rousse on October 10, where the 9pm performance at the Canetti Dom will be preceded by a practical and theoretical workshop and jam session with Rousse musicians.
The rest of the performances are: October 11 at Art Club Retro in Kavarna; October 12 at Area 51 in Varna; October 14 at Cafe Theater in Sevlievo; October 15 at the Mladezhki Dom in Lovech; and October 16 at the Kulturen Dom in Vratsa. Marracash Orchestra is in Bulgaria thanks to the International Elias Canetti Association, Dingo Music of Plovdiv, Kultur Aktiv of Dresden, the Germany embassy in Bulgaria and Robert Bosch Stiftung.
Those looking for something a bit more off-beat should consider AmBul8, the eighth festival of American and Bulgarian music, organised by Geoffrey Dean and taking place at the Boris Christoff Music Centre in Sofia from October 12 to 14. Dean, an American cellist, has been living in Bulgaria since 1992, and was a founding music faculty member at the American University in Bulgaria, of which he has been the fine arts programme co-ordinator since 1996.
The festival itself will see the presence of artists like the soprano Amy Jarman, performing 20th century American song with pianist Mario Angelov; Azerbaijan-born, Berlin-based Petros Ovsepyan, a composer of music that recalls an “instrumental theatre”; and the composer Elliot Carter, who will celebrate his 100th birthday during the event. Carter has been participating in AmBul since it was first held in 1998.
AmBul8 will also feature the world premiere of Mihail Goleminov's three-piano, live electronics composition Sound Shredder. The presentation will take place on October 14 at 7.30pm, with Galina Koicheva, Geoffrey Dean and Daniela Dikova giving life to the notes.
Later on in October, on the 27th, Boris Christoff Music Centre is holding a music and humour evening in partnership with the Austrian embassy.
There is more. The Sound and Relation festival of new music is taking place in Sofia from October 15 to 22. Following the curiosity piqued by the first such festival in 2007, held at The Red House Centre for Culture and Debate, this year's event happens at Zala Philip Koutev (Union of Bulgarian Composers, 2 Ivan Vazov Str) and at the chamber hall of Bulgaria Hall in Sofia.
A project of Auditum Association, the festival explores the traces of sound and its connection to the contemporary world. The October 15 opening (7pm, Zala Philip Koutev) features Anatoli Krustev on the viola, performing works by Velislav Zaimov, Dimitar Hristov, György Ligeti, Jonathan Harvey, Erich Urbaner, George Crumb and Georgi Arnaoudov. Playing along with Krustev are Tsvetomir Lazarov on double bass and Krassimir Taskov on piano.
On October 18, the professor Andi Lalieva will moderate a roundtable discussion on Bulgarian composers and new music, dedicated to the 75th birthday of composer Dimitar Hristov and the 60th birthdays of composers Yuliya Tsenova, Vladimir Panchev and Stefan Dragostinov.
Entrance to all the Sound and Relation performances are free-of-charge.
And look ahead to December. On the 10th, Neco Novellas brings his rhythmic jazz mix of African, Brazilian and European sound to the Central Military Club in Sofia at 8pm. The next day, December 11, Novellas and band perform at the Rousse Opera House. The concerts take place in the framework of the Meet the World Festival and are supported by the embassy of the Netherlands in Bulgaria.
