March 7, 2024/Thursday/
18.30 hours Hall “M-Ro G.Atanasov
Conductor: Alan Freiles Magnatta
Soloist: Nicole Costoli – piano
Program:
W. A. Mozart – Overture “The Mercy of Titus”
L. van Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15
F. Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 4 “Italian”, op.90
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Alan Freiles Magnatta
Conductor, Violinist, President of the New Assonances Foundation. The homonymous Orchestra was born within this Foundation, which has recorded the first recordings in modern times of Italian violin compositions for Tactus and Achord Pictures and orchestra (integral of the Pugnani and D ‘Ambrosio Concerts, the Illersberg concert).
Until now he has conducted about 250 symphonic and opera repertoire performances, collaborating with artists such as Dimitra Theodossiou, Alberto Gazale, Olga Guryakova, Rolando Panerai, Flavio Cucchi, Sarah M’Punga, Susanna Rigacci and directing important orchestras such as: the Orchestra del National Theater of Belgrade, Orchestra of the Puccini Festival, Orchestra of the State Theater of Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Bohemian Symphony Orchestra of Prague, West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra of Mariánské Lázně (Czech Republic), Symphony Orchestra of Karaganda (Kazakhstan), Philharmonic Orchestras of Lugansk and Donetsk, also collaborating with the Verdi Theater of Pisa, Goldoni of Livorno and Comunale of Bologna.
He has directed numerous opera productions such as: Aida, Barbiere di Siviglia, La Bohème, Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, L’Elisir d’Amore, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Nabucco, Pagliacci, Rigoletto, Traviata, A masked ball, Turandot, Trovatore, Tosca (including a performance in the Salone dei ‘500 in Florence, in the presence of the President of the Senate of the Italian Republic Pietro Grasso). The City of Pisa Literary Prize awarded him a special attention prize.
Nicole Costoli
Nicole graduated at the age of 19 with honors from the “Achille Peri” Conservatory of Reggio Emilia and achieved the second level academic biennium with Andrea Padova with honors and special mention at the “Arrigo Boito” Conservatory of Parma. She is currently studying with Maestro Marcello Mazzoni. Masters such as Andrea Padova, Andrea Lucchesini, Riccardo Risaliti, Marcello Mazzoni, Pietro De Maria contributed to her training. In 2021 she performed Beethoven’s First Concerto with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini directed by Maestro Luigi Mazzocchi and in 2023 she performed, together with Giovanni Mareggini and Stefano Maffizzoni, with the Bach concert BWV 1057 with Italian Philharmonic Soloists of Federico Guglielmo. She has distinguished herself in various national and international piano competitions (First prize at the VII “Clara Wieck Schumann” International Music Performance Competition; First prize to “Città di Arona” International Piano Competition 2021; Second Prize at the 13th Competition International Piano Competition “Città di Castiglion Fiorentino”, Second prize at the 33rd Competition City of Albenga piano, Absolute First prize at the VI edition of the “G. Alberghini” Award, Third prize at the Second edition of the “Villa Scacciapensieri” International Piano Competition Siena, Absolute First prize at the “Enotria Piano and Orchestra Competition”, Absolute First prize at the third edition of the national Aldo competition Finzi). She has performed for important concert events, including “Rassegna Musicale d’Estate” of San Marino, “Sagge sono le Muse” of Longiano (FC), “Rassegna giovani” of the “Festival of Italian pianists”, “Dialoghi sul Comporre”, “L’Ora della Musica” and “Restate” of Reggio Emilia, “Giovani Promesse” in Ala (TN) and in important theaters, including Titano Theater in San Marino, Concordia Theater of Borgo Maggiore (RSM), “Casa della Musica” (PR), “Sala degli Affreschi” of the Tadini Academy of Lovere, “Teatro del Popolo” of Gallarate, “Salone Palazzo Pizzini” (TN), “Auditorium Spazio Classica” in Milano, Sarzano Castle (RE), FICO Eataly World Congress Center (BO), Auditorium Del Carmine (PR), Cloisters of S.Pietro (RE), the “Arena Corte Carlo Malatesta” (FC) and “Rocca dei Boiardo” (RE). She played as pianist accompanist for Masterclasses held by Petru Iuga (Double Bass), Simone Bernardini (Violin), Silvia Mazzon (Violin and Viola), Marco Toro (first trumpet of Teatro alla Scala).
March 28, 2024/Thursday/
18.30 hours Hall “M-Ro G.Atanasov
Conductor: Grigor Palikarov
Soloist: Liya Petrova – violin
Program:
Jеan Sibelius – Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
Edward Elgar – “Enigma” Variations, Op.36
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Grigor Palikarov
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.
Liya Petrova
Liya Petrova was revealed to the international scene in 2016 when she took First Prize at the Carl Nielsen competition in Denmark, chaired by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. Two years later, she recorded the Nielsen and Prokofiev’s first concertos with the Odense Philharmonic and Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska for Orchid Classics. This first album earned her international acclaim from the press : London’s Sunday Times admired her « gorgeous sound – ripe and silvery, phrasing with majestic breadth ». Pizzicato in Germany also qualified her sound as « silvery and pure » while Gramophone praised her « exceptional tonal variety » in « a marvelous disc ». The Strad was impressed by her « natural virtuosity » while Clas-sical Music magazine finds her interpretation of the Nielsen concerto « staggeringly good » and « intensely lyrical »
As a soloist, Petrova is the guest of orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Antwerp Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Staatskapelle Weimar, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Brussels Philharmonic, Norddeutsche Philharmonie, Kansai Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orches-tre National des Pays de Loire, Sinfonia Varsovia, Odense Symphony Orchestra, with such leading conductors as Elim Chan, Stanislas Kochanovsky, Duncan Ward, Philippe Herreweghe, Krzysztof Penderecki, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Mar-zena Diakun, Alexander Liebreich, Mihhail Gerts, Kristiina Poska, Yan Tortelier, Xian Zhang, Ariane Matiakh, Roberto Minasi, Christopher Warren-Green, Michel Tabachnik or Jesús López Cobos.
She plays chamber music regularly with French Tchaikovsky competition 1st prize winner Alexandre Kantorow and per-forms with many wonderful musicians like Beatrice Rana, Emmanuel Pahud, Pablo Ferrandez, Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky, Renaud Capuçon, Augustin Dumay, James Ehnes, Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Yuja Wang, Gérard Caussé, Antoine Tamestit, Bruno Philippe, Aurélien Pascal and Gautier Capuçon. Petrova is a regular guest of chamber music festivals like the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, Rheingau Festival, Ludwigsburger Schloss-festspiele, Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, La Folle Journée, La Roque d’Anthéron International Festival and the Rencon-tres Musicales d’Evian.
Liya has been recorded for the French label Mirare since 2020. In the spring 2023. she presented her latest album, Mo-mentum 1, a stunning Walton and Respighi album featuring the Walton concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Duncan Ward and the Respighi sonata with pianist Adam Laloum. Her two previous albums on Mirare were a Beethoven-Barber-Britten recital album with pianist Boris Kusnezow in 2020 followed the following year by the Beethoven violin concerto and Mozart’s rarely performed K 271 concerto, known as n° 7, with Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Sin-fonia Varsovia. Earlier, Liya had released a Nielsen and Prokofiev album on Orchid Classics with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and Kristiina Poska. All of her albums received unanimous praises from critics worldwide.
Liya Petrova was born in Bulgaria into a family of musicians and studied with Augustin Dumay at Brussels’ Chapelle Musi-cale Reine Elisabeth, Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik Hans Eisler Berlin and Renaud Capuçon at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne. She now lives in Paris.
Liya plays a magnificent 1742 « Rovelli » Guarnerius del Gesu thanks to the support of her generous sponsor.