“The music in our lands shows how close we are. It is the unique brand of the Balkans that makes us different from other cultures across the world”, argues Dimitar Hristov, conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio folk music band. An original composer and author of arrangements and a pandore player, he is part of the projects Wild River and Bulgara. On Thursday the BNR band is giving the concert The Rhythm of the Balkans featuring thirteen renowned Balkan musicians including Hakan Gungur (Turkey), Stefche Stojkovski (the Republic of Macedonia), Matthaios Tsahouridis (Greece), as well as Moldovan Marin Geras.

“The program is based on the folklore spirit of the Balkan nations”, Dimitar Hristov explains. “All guest-performers are stars in their countries, and are our colleagues with whom we work on international projects. Marin Geras was born on the border of Moldova and Romania. He plays the pan flute, and is soloist of the Moldova’s Jok folk group. Stefche Stojkovski is a multi-instrumentalist – he is proficient on the shepherd’s flute, the bagpipe and the pandore. Hakan Gungur is one of the leading qanun instrumentalists. He has guest-performed for the album released recently by one of Bulgaria’s leading shepherd’s flute players, Nedyalko Nedyalkov. Matthaios Tsahouridis has graduated in music in UK. He plays a rare instrument – the Pontic Lyre. We rehearsed the unique pieces sent over by the soloists with great enthusiasm. The arrangements are quite masterful and have been made by Georgi Andreev, Peyo Peev, Kostadin Gentchev and Dimitar Hristov. We are looking forward to the concert with impatience as it is aimed to reveal the beauty of Balkan music. In fact art is very powerful in its function to make us closer. And it also makes us different from the rest of the world. We have plans to organize a tour of the Bulgarian National Radio folk music band in the native countries of our colleagues. This will be the best way to present the traditional Bulgarian music there. Our recordings are aired by many radio stations but the impact of a live performance is immeasurably greater”, concludes conductor Dimitar Hristov.

English Daniela Konstantinova