Audiences will be able to hear works by Bach, Mozart and Mendelssohn tonight, May 31 in Hall No. 6 of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, performed by the New Bulgarian University Camerata Orphica string orchestra with conductor and soloist Philippe Bernold - flute (France), Mario Hossen - violin and Adrian Oetiker - piano (Switzerland).

Prof. Hossen played with an orchestra as a soloist for the first timeat the age of 8. He was schooled in Sofia, Vienna and Paris. He is a musician of world renown and an honorary professor of New Bulgarian University; students of his are holders of the highest distinctions at competitions and festivals in Europe and Asia. Mario Hossen has performed with a host of different orchestras, among them the English Chamber Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow RadioTchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, La Scala Theatre Orchestra. He is founder and artistic director of the Orpheus international academy and music festival in Vienna. Prof. Hossen plays a 1749 Guadagnini violin on loan from the Austrian National Bank.

“I am very happy to be your guest and to be able to present an interesting and ambitious programme to the audience in Sofia,” says Prof. Hossen. “The concert is from the Interpreter-Soloists cycle, a New Bulgarian University and National Palace of Culture production. We shall be offering a kaleidoscope of music through the ages - from Bach and Mozart to Mendelssohn. Our guest Prof. Philippe Bernold is an emblematic figure of the French flute school, a renowned performing artist with a tremendous career as a performer and lecturer around the world. The programme features Orchestral Suite No. 2 by Johann Sebastian Bach, Mendelssohn's Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra with soloists myself and Adrian Oetiker, piano. The event will culminate in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's much-loved Symphony No. 40. I am happy to be able to perform Mendelssohn's concerto together with Maestro Oetiker - we recorded this work together several years ago with the Camerata Orphica for a Swiss sound recording company. He is one of the world's top pianists and a professor at the Basil Music Academy and the University of Music and Performing Arts, Munich. Adrian Oetiker is a renowned interpreter of Brahms and Beethoven.”

“The Interpreter-Soloists cycle at the National Palace of Culture is invariably affiliated with the Festival Congress Centre in Varna, where we perform the exact same programme. I am glad to say both concert halls are always filled to capacity and I am looking forward to performing in the two cities. Any concert is a creative process - with its own magic and fascination, because a knowledgeable audience, the benefactors, the people who enjoy the music are all part of a process, a process that generates its own energy and atmosphere when musicians and audience are at one.”

“I am an optimist,” says Prof. Hossen further. “I think there are people in Bulgaria, heralds of the Revival-time spirit. What happened in Bulgarian society in the 19th century may well happen again at the beginning of the 21st century. There are people who have a more global view of the role of art and human activity in the universal order of things and Bulgaria's own contribution. Regrettably, the processes taking place are tragic - young people emigrating for lack of any cultural policy, leaving Bulgaria at a young age to seek their fortunes abroad. The past 25 years have seen these foundations crumbling, foundations built by the old music school in the country that used to be a well-oiled machine producing constellations of superb musicians. Educated here, in Bulgaria, some continued in this country while others went on to join or become concertmasters of leading orchestras in Europe and spread the reputation of Bulgaria as a country with sound traditions in music. I have embraced the cause of coming back to my country to help revive the Bulgarian violin school. We currently have a dozen motivated young people of rare talent with awards from prestigious competitions abroad who come back here to play to Bulgarian audiences. We, students and lecturers, have been working in symbiosis towards a beautiful and romantic cause - the revival of the violin school in Bulgaria.”

English version: Milena Daynova

Audio contains the following works:

-  Caprice No. 5 by Paganini, performed by Mario Hossen;

-  Caprice No 16 by Paganini, performed by Mario Hossen;

-  Fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach from Well-Tempered Clavier, performed by Camerata Orphica, conductor Mario Hossen.