On February 14, a Concerto for violin and orchestra by Minko Lambov will be performed by famous Bulgarian violinist Svetlin Rusev (concertmaster of Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France) and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestrain Bulgaria concert hall downtown Sofia. The concert will be directed by Finnish conductor Sasha Makila. This will be the Bulgarian premiere of the work, which was first performed in Russia. A pianist and composer of music in various genres, Minko Lambov is also the lead musician of Shaka Zulu Orchestra. A few months ago, the band’s debut album Ethnopuzzlology won an award from the Los Angeles-based international chart for new music Akademia Music Awards. The fans of ethno jazz experiments are already familiar with Minko Lambov from some of his previous projects. A few years ago, his pop-opera The Fisherman and His Soul was presented with success.

“I am from a family of musicians - my father is a composer, conductor and pianist, my mother is a piano teacher, my sister is a pianist, my grandfather was also a musician," Minko says as a sort of introduction of himself. “I am a graduate of the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School (with oboe and piano) and of the Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy, where I graduated from the instrumental and theoretical-composing department. At the moment I am completing my master’s degree in orchestral conducting under Maestro Georgi Dimitrov at the New Bulgarian University. I can say that I have two main occupations - music and my family. My first major jazz band was Brainstorm with Mitko Lelev (saxophone), Yordan Yonchev - Gamza (trumpet) and others. I also made an interesting ethno jazz project - "Icadem", which did not last long. My biggest love and success so far is the Shaka Zulu Orchestra, with which we released last year's debut album, although the band is more than 10 years old. We received very serious recognition - the Akademia Music Award for the best funk fusion album of 2018. The band has 13 members.We share common perceptions and tastes for music. We have been working with some of our musicians since our school years. The project is truly unique and presents the Bulgarian folk art in a very different way. Perhaps due to the fact that we are a band of many members we can hardly receive invitations from the serious festivals in Bulgaria. I believe that after this great appreciation that we received from the authoritative US rating, things will change and the group will get the necessary recognition in Bulgaria as well. The music of Shaka Zulu bears elements of Bulgarian folklore, Turkish folklore, we have a Coptic chant - music written 30 years after Christ, and also Afro-Cuban motifs, Indian, Flamenco, Gypsy music ... The other direction for me is classical music and jazz. I try to preserve the classical form and development of the pieces, using different rhythms, intonations, and so on.

One of Minko Lambov's recent works in the genre of so-called serious music is his Violin Concerto whose world premiere took place at the end of 2017 in the Russian town of Kostroma.

“I received the invitation from Russia thanks to the contacts of my father who was the guest conductor of the Kostroma Governor’s Symphony Orchestra. In one of the programs he included a suite from my ballet The Storm based on Aleksandr Ostrovsky’s drama of the same name. The audience and the managers of the orchestra liked the work and this became the start of our collaboration. The violin concerto was created specifically for the distinguished Bulgarian violinist Svetlin Russev and is dedicated to him. In the beginning of 2018 we recorded it with the Bulgarian National Radio symphony orchestra.

And with the Shaka Zulu orchestra, we have an invitation for the upcoming International Festival "Kostromo Symfonicheskaya" in the same city. We will present the music from the award-winning album, but with a symphony orchestra, as we did at its official premiere in Sofia. Among my new works is also The Wild Swans - a children's musical, which is ready, we are currently looking for financing to put it on stage for our youngest viewers and listeners.”

English Rossitsa Petcova

Photo: private library