JOSHUA BELL AND SHLOMO MINTZ FEATURED AS SOLOISTS OF THE 2016 EUROPEAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Subscription tickets including four festival concerts go on sale September 1

August 31, 2015, Sofia

Two great contemporary masters of the violin – Joshua Bell and Shlomo Mintz – are to appear as special guests of the European Music Festival 2016. They will both perform concerts with the Classic FM Radio Orchestra as part of the festival, which will take place from March through June next year. Starting September 1, subscription tickets including four European Music Festival concerts go on sale and can be purchased at the Cantus Firmus box-office at Bulgaria Hall.

Three years after his memorable first appearance in Bulgaria, Joshua Bell returns with a major concert at the National Palace of Culture, Hall One, on May 13, 2016. The magnetic violinist will partner up on stage with conductor Maxim Eshkenazy.

Joshua Bell is undoubtedly one of the most accomplished violinists of our time. His on-stage presence, passion, and multifaceted musical interests place him in a league of his own in the field of classical music. Mr. Bell’s debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Riccardo Mutti was at the tender age of 14. Today, the 47-year-old violinist has appeared as soloist with virtually every major orchestra and conductor world-wide. In 2011, he was appointed music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (which was a 2015 EMF visiting ensemble). A Sony Classical exclusive artist, Joshua Bell has recorded over 40 albums, which have been awarded multiple Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone, and Echo Klassik awards. Mr. Bell performs on a unique 1713 Stradivarius “Huberman”, which has a remarkable history. The accomplished violinist has become particularly famous for an interesting experiment, initiated by journalist Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post. On January 12, 2007 Bell played for a whole hour, disguised as a street musician with a baseball cap, at a Washington subway station. Out of the nearly 1,000 passers-by during the morning rush hour, only seven stopped to listen, and only one person recognized the famous musician.

In February 2013, Mr. Bell performed a remarkable concert in Sofia, to a sold-out Bulgaria hall a whole month prior to the event. Due to popular demand, the dress rehearsal of that same concert was also opened to the general public, and was also completely sold out.

On March 28, the 2016 European Music Festival’s opening gala will feature another great violin star – Shlomo Mintz, who is well-known to Bulgarian concertgoers. He will appear both as soloist and conductor in a program which includes works by J. S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Britten.

The two remaining concerts of this series will also present first-class classical music. On the occasion of this year’s EMF, charming soprano Ina Kancheva is to prepare a special new project in collaboration with the Sofia Boys Choir, led by Adriana Blagoeva. Together they are to perform arias and choir numbers from works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. They will be accompanied by the Classic FM Radio Orchestra under the baton of maestro Georgi Dimitrov. This concert is dedicated to the 260 anniversary of Mozart’s birth.

The fourth and final EMF concert is to feature violinist Mila Georgieva in a chamber music program. She has to-date performed numerous concerts as soloist with orchestra, but hasn’t appeared as chamber musician. As concertmaster of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, she has participated in chamber series every year in Stuttgart. Following the great success of her chamber appearances in Varna (2013) and Plovdiv (2014), now Mila Georgieva is to perform for the Sofia public as well, and will be joined on stage by pianist Peter Petrov.

Subscription tickets go on sale September 1 at the Cantus Firmus box-office at Bulgaria Hall.

All patrons, who purchase tickets for the complete EMF series of four concerts, are eligible to participate in a ticket raffle for a total of 10 tickets for Leticia Moreno’s concert on October 16, 2015.

Box-office hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 9:30AM to 1:30PM and 3PM to 7PM. You can also purchase tickets online at www.tickets.bg. For every purchase of both complete Classic FM Radio Orchestra subscription series, you will receive a special gift – a book from Bard Publishing House.