The Danube River has served as more than just a conduit for barges and brownish-grey water. Every March, talented musicians from along its banks and beyond converge to the port town of Rousse to take part in a two week musical festival, known as the March Music Days International Festival (MMD).

Wandering through the city, except for a few banners, casual visitors would not have got the impression that a festival was going on, at least not in the mediaeval sense. Within Rousse’s theatres, however, at least one daily concert got underway at 7pm, with others, depending on the date, taking place at different venues, though never overlapping and thus enabling aficionados to attend all 24 scheduled performances.

The 2007 MMD kicked off with an opening ceremony on Saturday March 17 at Theatre Hall. Many prominent faces were seen in the packed auditorium including Speaker of Parliament Georgi Pirninski, Maria Dimova, Rousse regional governor, and the Russian consul of Rousse, Yuri Trushin.

Deputy Minister of Culture Ivan Tokazhiev and Bozhidar Yotov, mayor of Rousse, welcomed everyone present and thanked those involved in realising the occasion, making it one of the great cultural events in Rousse and Bulgaria. This year’s theme was presented as the “Common European Scene”, highlighted by Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the European Union, and the participation of artists from Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary and Lithuania, facilitated by the MMD’s joining in 2005 the European Festivals Association, an umbrella organisation of more than 100 annual festivals in 38 countries.

The spotlight then fell on the Rousse Philharmonic. Emil Tabakov, one of Bulgaria’s pre-eminent musicians, had taken time off from his current activities in Ankara, where he is composing music for the Turkish Army Band, to come and conduct the night’s performance. His cello concerto premiere featured a solo by acclaimed British cellist Tim Hugh. This was followed by solos by Mincho Minchev, professor at Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Germany, and his son, Nikolai Minchev as part of Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso for two violins. All four men have won numerous awards and played with many world-renowned orchestras.

Together they captivated the largely middle-aged audience coming mostly from the Rousse vicinity (east and west Bulgarian devotees normally attend the Varna Summer and Sofia Music Weeks international music festivals, respectively, though one fan had come all the way from Japan). At the closing of the concert with Symphony No 9 by Shostakovich, the stage became piled with flowers of every sort and colour. Rossitsa Hristova, a young attendee said: “I came specially to see Mincho perform live,” adding that “Everything was just perfect!”

In the days that followed, successive performances featured a wide range of programmes and musicians. Naturally all of Rousse’s musical establishments came out in force: the Rousse Philharmonic, Rousse Opera, Dunavski Zvutsi (Danube Sounds) Choir and the Professor Vassil Arnaudov Mixed Choir. Other big groups included the Classic FM Radio Orchestra (Sofia), the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the Budapest Chamber Orchestra and the Romanian National Radio Orchestra.

Among the individual performers were the cellist prize-winners at Rostropovich Competition in Paris, 2005, Marie-Elizabeth Hecker of Germany and Giorgi Kharadze, a French-Georgian. On March 20 they performed with Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra founded by Gidon Kremer, the celebrated Latvian violinist and conductor, and whose members hail from the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Their first appearance in Rousse, they performed Cello Concerto in D Major by Haydn, Cello Concerto by Azarashvili, and Elegie for Strings by Tchaikovsky.

Visiting groups, however, neither gathered here en mass, nor stayed longer than necessary to prepare for and recover from one concert, save German pianist Catherine Vickers who performed twice, on the 22nd and 24th. Zoya Alexandrova, cultural scholar at the Rousse municipality Department of Culture, explained how a staff member would go and greet incoming performers at Bucharest Airport and shuttle them by car or coach to their hotels in Rousse, where dignitaries welcomed them. After their concerts, they would jet off to their next venue elsewhere in the world. “That is the life of a professional musician,” she revealed.

With thousands of concert halls worldwide, international artists tend to make infrequent, irregular stops to places like Rousse. Then there are those like Yuri Bashmet. The world-class Russian violist has performed at six out of the past 10 festivals here because he says he finds Rousse very charming and counts it as one of his favourite towns. Vickers and fellow pianist Maria Prinz of Austria are also returnees.

MMD goers may get the impression of a quick, compact programme, unlike Varna Summer, which extends over a month. Behind the scenes is another matter, however. “Putting the March Music Days together calls for extensive preparations, arrangements, scheduling, co-ordination and co-operation, often two to three years in advance,” explains Iva Chavdarova, director of the festival and the Department of Culture.

Besides individuals, numerous institutions help organise, promote and sponsor the festival, including the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, the Union of Bulgarian Composers, Bulgarian National Radio, Bulgarian National Television, and the Bulgarian branches of the British Council, Gaudeamus Foundation (Holland), Goethe Institute (Germany), Pro Helvetia (Switzerland), the Hungarian Cultural Institute, the embassy of Austria and the Institut francais. Among a like number of commercial enterprises, United Bulgarian Bank served as the chief sponsor.

And to ensure that future generations are equipped to produce great music, six of the performers also gave master classes for aspiring, young artists at Professor Sasha Popov Music Academy. These included violin lessons by Minchev, and piano instructions by the duo Aglika Genova and Lyuben Dimitrov of the Hanover Music Academy. From the Vienna Philharmonic, professor Wolfgang Schulz along with his son Matthias Schulz conducted flute classes, while Franz Bartolomey taught the cello. These Austrians performed with the Symphony Orchestra of Pazardjik, which made its first appearance in Rousse this year.

Upon successful completion of the programme, students were rewarded with diplomas and had the chance (required) to do a public recital, which formed part of the festivities.

These constituted rare opportunities in Bulgaria, according to Momchil Milanov, a professor at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia, who says universities are experiencing an acute shortage of music instructors.

Students here may consider crossing the river. Romania, in contrast, offers ample facilities and training in fostering young talent. And in England, music education has even been extended into rehabilitation programmes. “We go and give music lessons in prisons,” says Owen Gunnel of O Duo, who along with Oliver Cox performed on xylophones on the 19th at the Capo Night Club. “And the convicts have responded very positively.”

As well as music, MMD hosted other festival-related activities. March 26 saw the promotion of A Feather of the Peacock – first edition, a book by Georgi Chendov, director of the Rousse Opera House in its early years. Published posthumously, it reveals the workings, personalities and events of the institution. Also at hand was a painting exhibition at Theatre Hall entitled Music is a Woman, featuring the works of Ivan Ivanov-Yoanii.

Guests to The European Culture Centre were treated to live violin- and cello-making demonstrations by the Kaloferov family, along with an exhibition of photos from previous festivities.

The March Music Days festival itself dates back to 1961. Then-Bulgarian and East German cultural authorities first organised the festival to celebrate good music and increase transnational interaction and understanding among countries of the communist bloc.

Since, it has hosted 100s of Bulgarian and international premieres and opuses specially written for it. A number of world-class orchestras have performed here, from the Sofia Philharmonic and the Sofia Soloists to the Gewandhaus Orchestra (Leipzig), Bruckner Orchestra (Linz), the London Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, the Juilliard String Quartet (New York) and Tokyo String Quartet.

The most famous musician to come to MMD was Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich, considered by many to be the greatest symphony writer of the mid-20th century. His Katerina Ismailova premiered in the Rousse Opera Theatre in 1965.

As well as its location downstream from the cultural hearth of Europe, the cityscape of Rousse provides an ideal backdrop for artistic venues. In stark contrast with its surrounding monolithic apartment blocks and smokestack industries, the central area features a square and buildings of Neo-baroque and Neo-rococo design.

Of his first encounter here, Dancho Luchiev, a student from Silistra recalls: “I felt as if I were in Vienna – even though I had never been there before.”
With these endowments, Rousse plays host to various other cultural events, including its own International Jazz Festival, the International Theatre Festival and the Golden Rebec Folk Festival. Regarding the future, Chavdarova says she is working to increase both the number and diversity of cultural programmes, events and artists active in Rousse. She would also like to see more people, especially the young, appreciate and take to fine music and the arts.