Februari 18, 2021 /Thursday/  

18.30 hours      Hall “M-Ro G.Atanasov

                                                Conductor: Grigor Palikarov                                             

 Soloists:

Olga Mihaylova-Dinova                              Penyo Pirozov

 Program:

Johann Strauss – son – Overture from the operetta “The Bat”

Johann Strauss – from the operetta “Gypsy Baron”

Franz Lehar – Judith’s aria from the operetta “Judith“

Jacques Offenbach – Overture from the operetta “Orpheus in Hell”

Jacques Offenbach – Paris aria from the operetta “Beautiful Helen”

Imre Kalman – Song of Silva from the operetta “The Queen of the Chardasha”

Franz von Supe – Overture from the operetta “Light Cavalry”

Franz Lehar – Duet of Count Danilo and Hannah Glavari from the operetta “The Merry Widow”

Johann Strauss – Duet of Count and Countess Tsedlau from the operetta “Viennese Blood”

Grigor Palikarov (born in 1971 in Plovdiv) graduated the National School of Music and Dance Art “Dobrin Petkov” – Plovdiv with the specialty of piano with excellent grades and golden badge award in 1990 and then he graduated the Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia with Master’s degrees in four majors: Opera and Symphony Conducting under Acad. V. Kazandzhiev and Prov. Iv. Vulpe; Composition under Prof. D. Tapkov, Piano – under Prof. Kr. Taskov and Choir Conducting under Prof. St. Kralev. He specialized in Composition within two summer courses in Austria with Prof. Erich Urbaner from Vienna University of Musical and Performing Arts.

His debut at the opera stage was when he was still a student (at the age of 22) and conducted Rigoletto in the opera theatres in Pleven and Stara Zagora.

His professional career as a conductor began in the Symphonic Orchestra of the Bulgarian Army Ensemble (1995 – 1997) and from 1997 to 1999 he was Chief Conductor of the Ensemble. In the meantime, he also took the position of conductor and chief artistic director of the renowned Youth Philharmonic “Pioneer” (1998 – 2003). His debut at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre – Sofia was in 1998 when he conducted a Gala Concerto of Gena Dimitrova by her personal request. Since 2001 he was appointed fulltime conductor of the opera and currently his repertoire includes more than 55 opera and ballet works. Since season 2005-2006 Grigor Palikarov is also the Chief Artistic Director and Conductor of the Symphonic-Opera Society at the National Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” – Sofia.

At present, Grigor Palikarov is a frequent visiting conductor of a number of orchestras and opera theatres among which are: Symphonic Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, Classic FM Orchestra – Sofia, of which he is also a permanent conductor since season 2008-2009, Sofia Philharmonic, Festival Orchestra – Sofia, the national Operas in Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna, Ruse and Stara Zagora, the Pleven Philharmonic, etc. A special place among his multiple conducting performances is occupied by the numerous studio records of various works with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, along with his participations in prestigious national and international music festivals such as Sofia Music Weeks, March Music Days, Laureate Days “Katya Popova” – Pleven, Austrian Music Weeks, New Bulgarian Music, Winter Music Evenings – Pazardzhik, Opera and Ballet Festival – Varna, Contemporary Music Festival – Pula, Croatia, May Opera Nights – Skopje, Macedonia, Dyuni Festival – Matera, Italy, etc. In October 2014, Grigor Palikarov had two concertos with the orchestra of Classic FM Radio at the prestigious Alte Oper (Frankfurt am Mein) from the programme of the festival of European Culture Days organized by the European Central Bank.

Grigor Palikarov regularly performs abroad in countries like Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg, Russia, the USA, Slovenia, Greece, Poland, the Ukraine,  Taiwan, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Portugal, Mexico, Korea, Japan, Uruguay, etc. He has conducted the Royal Belgian Philharmonic – Brussels, the national Opera and Ballet – Ljubljana, Vienna Chamber Ensemble “New Tone”, Century Symphonic Orchestra – Taipei,   Cleveland Opera – the USA where his debut was marked as one of the most important music events for 2009 in the state of Ohio, the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet – Russia, Yanacek Philharmonic – Czech Republic, Czestohowa Philharmonic and Varmino-Masuric Philharmonic – Poland, Symphonic Orchestra – Bari, national Orchestra (SODRE) and the National Choir of Uruguay, Magna Grecia Orchestra – Italy, Dnepropetrovsk Philharmonic, Yucatan Symphonic Orchestra and Monterey Symphonic Orchestra – Mexico, Thessaloniki Symphonic Orchestra, and many others.

Along with his activity as a conductor, Grigor Palikarov composes, performs in concerto playing the piano and teaches at the National Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” where he successfully pursued his Ph.D. degree in Music Studies and Music Art in 2017. Some of his works are being performed at a number of festivals and have been recorded many times. He has won many national and international awards for his successful performance as a composer and pianist at the competitions “Svetosalv Obretenov”, “Albert Roussel”, The Music of the Earth, etc. Three-time laureate of the prestigious award Crystal Lyre of the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers – 2002, 2012, and 2017, as well as of the ward the Golden Feather.

Within two mandates, Grigor Palikarov has been the Chair of Mensa-Bulgaria –  the branch of the worldwide organization of people with high IQ.

Olga Mihaylova-Dinova

Olga Dinova is an opera singer, a graduate of the State Music Academy “P. Vladigerov ”in 1992. in the opera singing class of Prof. Sima Ivanova. Her debut was in the same year. She plays Rosina in J.’s The Barber of Seville. Rossini on the stage of the National Opera. Over the years he has performed many central roles in operas. He also performs in the field of operetta and musicals.

The opera singer has many chamber themed concerts with music by French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian and Bulgarian composers, as well as contemporary classical and popular music.

Olga Dinova has numerous recordings in BNR and BNT. In 2009 he released a solo CD with songs by Todor Popov.

Penyo Pirozov

In 2001 graduated from the State Academy of Music “Pancho Vladigerov” in the class of Hristina Angelakova – opera singing, after which he was accepted as a soloist-artist at the DMT – “Stefan Makedonski”. Over the years he has developed his vocal technique with such names as Nikola Nikolov, Alexandrina Milcheva, Anna Tomova-Sintov and Gena Dimitrova. He specializes in Salzburg with Prof. Boris Bakov. He established himself as a leading tenor in the repertoire of the Musical Theater. At the same time he participated in the production of the opera houses of Bulgaria, Turkey – Izmir and Western Europe. He has performed many opera roles with great success.