For the 34^th time the lovely Black Sea town of Sozopol played host to the Apollonia Festival of Arts created by violinist Dimo Dimov from the internationally acclaimed Dimov String Quartet. He together with Margarita Dimitrova and the team they work with have once and again converted the resort into a stage of the arts – at the end of August and in early September.

The playbill of the festival featured theater shows, concerts, film premieres and new book titles which have made a positive impression on both audiences and reviewers. Since 1999, Apollonia has been giving the award of Apollo Toxophoros for merits in the development of the Bulgarian culture and its presentation abroad. The 2018 Award went to artist Greddy Assa.

This year by tradition the Apollonia Festival program was diverse in every genre. Theater shows that were presented on stage included Chamkoria directed by Javor Gardev, The Winter of Our Discontent and Little Foxes directed by Bina Haralampieva. Directions and Heights and other films that have won a few prizes were screened to festival audiences.

The chamber concerts given at Sozopol’s Archeological Museum enjoyed full houses. Flutist Dejan Gavric from Serbia gave a concert jointly with Stolina Dobreva (guitar). Other soloists included Joanna Kamenarska – violin, Antonina Boneva – piano, Gabriela Georgieva – soprano, Georgii Cherkin – piano.

These were only some of the soloists who appeared in the Sozopol hall. It also hosted two jazz concerts with a flair of classical music – the project of Angel Zaberski trio Like Jazz 2 and ImproviSatie – of Veselin Veselinov – Eko, double bass, and Milen Kukosharov, piano. The two bands demonstrated an interesting innovative approach towards works by classical composers.

The musicians from Funky Miracle, Koka Mass Jazz and other bands presented a variety of projects. The only premiere was of jazz trio PlaYIS with their debut album 7/4. In fact the name PlaYIS has brought together a few well-known instrumentalists: Yasen Velchev – piano, Ivailo Zvezdomirov – double bass and Stoyan Yankoulov a.k.a. Stundzhi – drums. Guitarists Veselin Koychev and Elvis Stanic from Croatia are also part of the project.

Here is what Yasen Velchev said ahead of the concert in Sozopol:

“I am very happy that we are together again, the three of us. We have teamed up for a few projects but now the time has come to make music that is dear to the three of us. I have written the compositions but the music is ours – because every one of us has made his inputs. I have composed the pieces at different stages of my career – there are old ones set aside, as well as some quite new ones. We have entitled the album 7/4 and have included 11 pieces in it. I think we really love the result – the three of us – and besides, we have never aimed to be liked by all at any cost,”

English Daniela Konstantinova