Music of Bulgaria

The music of Bulgaria refers to all forms of music associated with the country of Bulgaria, including classical, folk, popular music, and other forms. Classical music, opera, and ballet are represented by composers Emanuil Manolov, Pancho Vladigerov, Vesselin Stoyanov and Georgi Atanasov; instrumentalists such as pianist Alexis Weissenberg, described in The Guardian as a Bulgarian-born pianist with an international career, and violinist Mincho Minchev, whose performing career has included appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall; and singers Ghena Dimitrova, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Boris Hristov, Raina Kabaivanska and Nicolai Ghiaurov. Bulgarian conductors with international careers include Emil Tchakarov, who won third prize at the 1971 Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition and later appeared at the Metropolitan Opera; Emil Tabakov, winner of the Nikolai Malko International Competition for Young Conductors and former music director of the Sofia Soloists, Sofia Philharmonic and Belgrade Philharmonic; Ruslan Raychev, whose career included work with major opera and symphonic institutions in Europe and beyond; Nayden Todorov, artistic director of the Sofia Philharmonic since 2017; Rossen Milanov, music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and Princeton Symphony Orchestra; and Pavel Baleff, former chief conductor of the Philharmonie Baden-Baden and music director of Opéra de Limoges. Notable names from the contemporary pop scene are DARA,Poli Genova,Lili Ivanova, Emil Dimitrov and Vasil Naydenov.