February 16, 2017 / Thursday /
18.30 hours Hall “M-Ro G.Atanasov”
Conductor:GRIGOR PALIKAROV
program:
Anton Bruckner – Symphony № 4 “Romantic”
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GRIGOR PALIKAROV
Grigor Palikarov (was born in 1971 in Plovdiv) graduated National High School of Music And Dancing Art “Dobrin Petkov” – Plovdiv. His main major was piano, which he graduated with full scores and golden medal in 1990. After that he achieve a diploma of master degree from The National Musician Academy “Pancho Vladigerov” – Sofia , for the following majors : opera and symphony conducting with prof. C. Kazandjiev and prof. Yves. Vulpe; composition with prof. D. Tapkov, piano – with Prof.. Kr. Taskov and choral conducting with Professor. St. Kralev. He specialised in composition with Professor Erich Urbaner at the Vienna Conservatory, Austria.
His debut on the opera stage was as a student (22 years), when he conducted “Rigoletto” at the opera houses in Pleven and Stara Zagora.
His professional career as a conductor began in Symphony Ensemble of the Bulgarian Army (1995-1997), and from 1997 to 1999 he was a chief conductor of the Ensemble. Meanwhile, he assumed the post of chief conductor and artistic director of the Youth Philharmonic “Pioneer” (1998-2003). He also debuted at the National Opera and Ballet in Sofia in 1998 by conducting a gala concert of Gena Dimitrova. Since 2001 he was appointed as a full-time conductor of the Opera and into the current moment his repertoire includes more than 55 opera and ballet titles. Since the beginning of the 2005/06 season, Mr. Palikarov has also taken the position of General Artistic Manager and Conductor of the Symphony-Operetta Orchestra „ m-ro G. Atanasov” – Pazardzhik.
Mr. Palikarov is often invited as a guest conductor of many orchestras and opera theatres in Bulgaria among: Symphony Orchestra of Bulgarian National Radio, Classic FM Orchestra – Sofia, where he is a permanent conductor for the 2008/09 season, Sofia Philharmonic, Festival Orchestra – Sofia, State Opera in Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna, Ruse and Stara Zagora, Pleven Philharmonic etc. After series of conducting appearances, special place occupy numerous studio recordings of various musical composition with the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, as well as participations in prestigious national and international music festivals such as “Sofia Music Weeks”, “March Music Days” – Rousse, “European Music Festival “- Sofia,”Apollonia “Laureate days” Katya Popova “- Pleven,” Austrian Music Weeks “,” New Bulgarian music “,” Winter Musical Evenings “- Pazardzhik, Festival of Opera and Ballet Art – Stara Zagora , Festival of Contemporary Music – Pula, Croatia, “May Opera Evenings” – Skopje, Macedonia and others.
Mr. Palikarov regularly carried out many tours abroad including countries like Germany, Austria (with Ensemble “New Ton,” Vienna), Belgium (with the National Orchestra of Belgium), France, Italy, Luxemburg, Macedonia, Slovenia (with the National Opera and Ballet-Ljubljana), Switzerland, Taiwan (with Century Orchestra-Taipei), USA (with Opera Circle-Cleveland), Japan, etc. His debut in the USA has been mentioned by the American critics as “one of the most important musical events for year 2009.” For state of Ohio, Krasnoyarsk opera and ballet – Russian Philharmonic “Janacek” – the Czech Republic and others. In October 2014 M-ro Grigor Palikarov has made two concerts with the Orchestra of Classic FM radio in the prestigious Alte Oper (Frankfurt) program of the festival EUROPEAN CULTURAL DAYS, organized by the European Central Bank.
In addition to his work as a conductor, Mr. Palikarov composes music and performs as a piano soloist with different orchestras in Bulgaria, he also teaches musical analysis at the State Academy of Music and Dance Arts-Plovdiv as an Assistant Professor. Some of his works were performed at music festivals and recorded many times.
For its successful appearances as a composer and pianist he has been awarded a number of prestigious national and international awards from the competitions “Svetoslav Obretenov”, “Albert Roussel”, “Music and Earth” and others. Mr. Palikarov is a winner of the prestigious “Crystal Lyre” of UBMD – 2001 and 2012 as well as the award “Golden Pen”.
Within two terms Mr. Palikarov was chairman of the “Mensa” – Bulgaria.