The tough keys of the old black Bluthner grand piano hurt her fingertips and the cellos played out of tune. The notorious kids-in-the-first-rows could not settle down and talked loudly throughout the concert. Despite all this, the music of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto flowed into the darkened half-empty hall of Blagoevgrad Chamber Opera Theatre, and giddy piano passages pleased the ears and touched the hearts of those few visitors who understood the music.

Bulgarian pianist Elena Ivanova, a 2007 graduate of the National Music Academy (NMA) piano department, played in Blagoevgrad on September 27 2007 dreaming of Vienna, where she has won a chance to continue her musical education.

“She did a fine job [at the concert], especially given the restless young audience,” Alan Hickman, writing and literature professor at American University in Bulgaria, said. Although Hickman is not a musician himself, he attends classical music concerts often and was “delighted to hear Elena’s performance”.

It was not by chance that the juries gave Ivanova an award “for the most promising young talent” at one of the most prestigious piano and chamber music competitions in the world for the past 14 years – the 13th International Johannes Brahms Competition in 2006 at Portschach, Austria. Her award was not even in the list of awards before she performed. “It was created especially for me [on the request by the audience],” Ivanova said.

At the final round she played Sonata opus 111 by Beethoven, one of her favourite composers. Ivanova knows the difference between show-off technique and deeply musical performance. “The performers tended to play fast and loud to impress the public that needed a show, disregarding the message the music should have conveyed,” she said. “Technique, as a Greek notion, includes artistry, musical talent and technical skills. Nowadays, it means simply the adroitness of the fingers.”

That is why music by Beethoven and Brahms fascinates Ivanova – “because of its balance of the rational and emotional,” she said. “It is very hard to define this distinction so the music does not become sentimental or ‘mathematical’.” Unfortunately, in pursuing technical brilliance many modern musicians fail to find and show this distinction in their performance.

Ivanova’s award consisted of three piano lessons for three hours each with professor Avedis Kouyoumdjian, director of the Joseph Haydn Institute of Chamber Music and Special Ensembles at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He was also the chairman of the chamber music jury of the 2006 Brahms Competition. In his recommendation letter for Elena he wrote:

“[At the competition] Ivanova impressed me with her high musicality and remarkable artistic personality. Due to the fact that I myself won an international Beethoven Competition [in Vienna where the world’s top pianists compete] in 1981, I offered her my help in preparation for the [same] contest. It would be a great […] chance for Ivanova to start a four-semester post-graduate study in my class of March 2008, thus preparing stylistically and technically for this important competition. As long as Ivanova herself can not finance this study, important for her artistic future, I would advise supporting her with all resources available in her country, be it state or private scholarships.”

The Viennese university cannot sponsor Ivanova’s education as it does not pay for post-graduate studies. And entities in Bulgaria, like in other countries of the region, are known for scant sponsorship for study abroad programmes.

The university estimated that Ivanova’s piano course will cost 600 euro a semester with an additional 500 euro for living expenses in Vienna, she said. Ivanova has talked with numerous private companies, foundations and with the Ministry of Culture. None seemed to be helpful. “Some of them do not practice cultural exchange with Austria; others sponsor only computer and business projects. Music turns out to be of low priority for sponsors. Maybe I am not a very popular pianist in Bulgaria,” Ivanova sighed. Meanwhile, Kouyoumdjian and his colleagues are still looking for financial help for her in Vienna, she said.

Born with music in her heart, Ivanova started taking piano lessons at age six at Blagoevgrad General School No 1, as there are no specialised music schools in town. At 13, she applied to National Music School Lybomir Pipkov in Sofia and faced a great challenge of the admission exams. “Suddenly I had to catch up with the high level of harmony, piano [and other disciplines] of Sofia students,” Ivanova said.

“A girl of strong will, she can work beyond her limits. Her great wish to become a pianist led her to the performance department after she was already a student in the conducting and theory department of the NMA in Sofia,” Simona Genkova, a pianist and a good friend, says.

Dreaming of Vienna, Ivanova is not giving up her life in Sofia. The NMA provided her with a scholarship to earn a PhD in ethnomusicology, and at the moment she is gathering the folk songs, dances and customs of the people from villages around Blagoevgrad. By the end of December 2008, Ivanova will have to transcribe the materials and put together her graduation paper.

“People are afraid that I am collecting the materials to gain profit, and I have to persuade them [that I will not misuse it].” Ivanova says. “One cannot speculate with that, it’s their life and inheritance, it’s their mum, dad, grandma and grandpa. They do not sell it.” Determined and persistent, Ivanova found people more than 80 years old who can talk tales, dance and perform customs at the same time.

In her spare time she accompanies various musicians in Sofia and gives private piano lessons.

“I earn just enough to sustain myself here, not in Vienna,” she says.

In spring 2008, Ivanova will have to pass the admission exams in Vienna – a mere formality to officially enrol at the university if she manages to find the money.

She remembers the breath-taking sceneries around the lake Worthersee in Portschach that inspired Brahms to write his Second Symphony in D Major in 1877. “Yes, Lake Worthersee is virgin territory where the melodies fly around so much that you have to be careful not to stifle any,” Johannes Brahms once said. Ivanova visited the house-museum where Brahms lived. “I played his piano and cried,” she recalled.

Piano is her life, Ivanova said, but so dynamic that it is impossible to plan it even two days in advance: “At the moment it is better to for me to have life surprising me a little bit.” She has to be active but to never maniacally pursue her aim. That is why she pours her soul out on the piano for hours every day and simply hopes to go to Vienna.