September 16 , 2021 /Thursday/

        18.30 hours  Hall “M-Ro G.Atanasov”

                                                                                               Conductor:  Grigor palikarov                                                                                  

Soloist:

Alessandro Marano – piano /Italy/

Program:

Sergey Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto №2  in C minor, op.18

Alexander Borodin – “From the steppes of Central Asia.”

Alexander Glazunov – “Stenka Razin”, symphonic poem, op.13

     ∗∗∗

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.

Alessandro Marano

The Italian pianist Alessandro Marano is one of the most brilliant musicians of his generation. At the same time as studies in the Conservatory of Music “Stanislao Giacomantonio” of Cosenza with Professor Giuseppe Maiorca, he attended the International Piano Courses in the “Paul Hindemith” Foundation in Blonay (Switzerland) where he spent eight years studying with such internationally renowned teachers and performers as Edith Fischer and Paul Badura-Skoda. He completed his musical education studying with Bruno Canino and Aldo Ciccolini.

Being an award winner of a several national and international piano competition, Marano keeps a busy concert schedule presenting solo recitals and collaborating with renowned musician all over Italy and abroad (Spain, Switzerland, Romania, Germany, Greece, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, Great Britain).

Possessing a very solid piano technique, Marano is praised for his seriousness and sensitivity as well as for the depth of his musical interpretations. One of Marano passions is his study and performance of works by Liszt those less known. His repertory includes the 12 Etudes d’exécution transcendante, the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, the complete paraphrases and transcriptions from Verdi’s operas and the works for piano and orchestra.

Marano played under the conducting of important conductors such as Ovidiu Balan, Grigor Palikarov, Petronius Negrescu, Valentin Doni, Cristian Neagu, Lyubomir Denev jr; he performed and recorded all the Beethoven Piano Concertos under the conducting of Maestro Lodi Luka, adopting the transcription for string orchestra by Vinzenz Lachner.

He is the Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival in Cosenza (Italy), President of the cultural and musical Association Amici del pianoforte “Franz Liszt”, piano Professor at the “Beato Francesco Maria Greco” Secondary School of Acri (Italy) and teacher-assistant in the Conservatory of Music “S. Giacomantonio” of Cosenza.

   ∗∗∗

September 30 , 2021 /Thursday/

        18.30 hours  Hall “M-Ro G.Atanasov”

                                                                                               Conductor: David Shlager/Austria/                                                                              

Program:

W. A. Mozart – ”A Little Night Music” K 525

F. Mendelssohn – Symphony №4, “Italian”, in A major, Op. 90

   ∗∗∗

David Shlager

Big names such as Karl Böhm, Fabio Luisi or Philipp Jordan started their international careers in Graz. With David Schlager a young and highly talented conductor attracts attention and due to his extraordinary talent pushes into the limelight.

Although only in his mid-twenties, the Austrian conductor David Schlager is able to look back on a whole series of successful music theatre productions. Most recently the production of Csárdásfürstin in Leoben roused great interest. There he already successfully made his debut with The Merry Widow.

To his conducted opera repertory also pertains L’elisir d’amore, Im weißen Rössl and The Merry Wives of Windsor, as well as Così fan tutte in Graz.

In the past years David Schlager also appeared on the podium of various orchestras, like the Savaria Symphony, Joseph Haydn Orchestra, Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra and Györ Philharmonic Orchestra.

At the age of 21 he already took the lead of the renowned Singgemeinschaft Waasen. With this choir he realised performances of many big sacred vocal works such as Mozart‘s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and various masses by Haydn. Two performances of Mendelssohn’s Elias have definitely been the highlight.

David Schlager (27), born in Leoben, studied conducting and correpetition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Martin Sieghart and Marc Piollet).

In December 2020 he will be awarded the honorary prize of the University.