Fanny Koutzarova as a pianist, pedagogue and solo performer has been trained by some of the leading Bulgarian musicians, and has continued a tradition running in the family. She is a fourth generation musician and teacher. Her November program is tight with a few interesting concerts.

“The main story that interests me is the 100^th birth anniversary of my beloved professor Liuba Entcheva. Commemorating her, I have teamed up with clarinetist Ventzislav Trifonov with whom we have organized a series of concerts. The first one was on 4 November, and there are events planned in Pazardzhik on 17 November, followed by Pleven, Shumen and Razgrad. We expect confirmations from Kyustendil and Pernik as well.”

Fanny Koutzarova was trained by Prof. Liuba Entcheva at the High School of Music in Sofia from the 7^th to 11^th grade. She owes to her knowledge and skills as pianist. Liuba Encheva was a renowned Bulgarian pianist of 20 c. who was also acclaimed internationally. As her disciple Fanny Koutzarova works to make sure she will not be forgotten by young generations of musicians. Chamber music is a genre that Liuba Encheva loved very much, and she handed down this love to Fanny. In 1959 Prof. Encheva jointly with Prof. Sava Dimitrov founded the first duo in this country for piano and clarinet. Together they concertized in 26 countries across the world and gave master classes. More from Fanny Koutzarova:

“For this reason I decided to start a duo with Ventzislav Trifonov. The program that we performed on 4 November includes three sonatas from the repertoire of the Encheva-Dimitrov duo. My chamber music professor, Georgita Boyadzhieva introduced me to Ventzislav. She was aware that I was looking for a good clarinetist to organize such a duo. He is a very talented young man leading the clarinetists at the Musical Theater in Sofia. We later gave a concert with works by Bulgarian composers. So far we have had a few tours and our repertoire has been diversified. We are happy that there are works written especially for the duo – by Russian Jewish composer Boris Levenberg. He has dedicated to us a few pieces – the suite Cinderella, the dances Ragi and Raghari and he was very impressed with the way we performed them. With Ventzislav Trifonov we are open to guest-performers for various projects. Sometime ago, on the occasion of a Piazzolla anniversary, we invited cellist Stanislav Ushinkin and we held a great concert at Sofia Live Club. Last year with Valia Velcheva (cello) we formed a trio and had a tour of Bulgaria. For twelve years I have been part of another duo, with guitarist Rossen Balkanski. It has turned out that Maurice Ravel composed beautiful music for the three instruments (piano, clarinet and guitar) and this music has brought us together.”

Apart from contemporary music, the repertoire of Fanny Koutzarova also includes classical music, baroque and music from Romanticism. She has been invited to carry out a major project, Two Voice and Three Voice Inventions by Johann S. Bach. Fanny has another ambition – to record works by a little known Bulgarian composer of Jewish descent, Menahem Bensusan. A contemporary of Pancho Vladigerov, having performed with violinist Vasko Abadzhiev, he had a life full of ups and downs. During World War 2, he emigrated to USA. Being a dentist by training Menahem Bensusannever stopped writing music based on the Bulgarian tradition. Upon his death, his friend sent his entire archives to Israel. A lot of time passed, and only ten years ago, Fanny Koutzarova presented part of his works and recorded them at the Bulgarian National Radio. In the meantime, the pianist has become a skilled pedagogue. On 9 November she gave a concert jointly with her students in the hall of the Union of Architects in Bulgaria. Aged from 3 to 56 they are truly in love with the magic of piano.

English Daniela Konstantinova

The audio file contains the following pieces:

1/ Italian Concerto by Johan Sebastian Bach, Third Movement

2/ Epilogue from the suite Cinderella by Boris Levenberg

3/ Dance by Dimitar Nenov