Concert of
ppIANISSIMO ENSEMBLE
(Bulgaria)
PORTRAIT OF
(Korea)
Tatyana Zhelyazkova
Flute
Angelina-Ogniana Gotcheva
Clarinet
Sara Panosyan
Violin
Stefania Yankova
Viola
Maria Vasileva
Cello
Martina Miteva
Percussion
Bogdan Ivanov
Piano
Svetlin Hristov
Conductor
Featuring
Ines Simeonova
Ines Simeonova
piano
&
Eunho Chang
piano
Punkt Line I for solo piano (2016) *
{performed
by Eunho Chang}
Punkt Line II for solo piano (2019) **
{performed
by Ines Simeonova}
Punkt Line III for solo piano (2019) **
{performed
by Ines Simeonova}
Panorama for seven instruments (2015) *
__________
* Bulgarian
premiere
** World
premiere
*
* *
This concert has been made
possible
thanks to the generous support of:
thanks to the generous support of:
* * *
The Performers
Ines Simeonova
(b. 1994) was born
in Dobrich. She graduated from the “Lyubomir Pipkov”
National School of Music (Sofia) in the piano class of Mariana
Shikova in 2013. In the same year, she was admitted to the “Prof. Pancho
Vladigerov” National Academy of Music, where she graduated with a Master’s Degree
in Piano under Prof. Borislava Taneva, PhD. Over the years, she has been an
active participant in the master classes of many famous piano professors in
Bulgaria, Austria, England, India, Italy, Slovenia, the USA, etc., including:
Hiroaki Takenouchi, Ian Jones, Igor Petrin, Daniele Petralia, Naum Grubert,
Marco Perini, Marina Horak, Fulvio Turisini, Natalia Trull, Tamara Poddubnaya,
Sachiko Kodama, Peter Donohoe, Joan Havill, Andrew Johnston, Milena Mollova,
Ludmil Angelov, Viktor Chuchkov, Zheni Zaharieva and others.
She
has been awarded numerous prizes from piano and chamber music competitions in
Bulgaria, Romania, Germany and the USA, most recently: the second prize at the
“Albert Roussel” International Piano Competition (Sofia, 2016); second and
special prize at the Academic Chamber Music Competition (in duo with Teodora
Atanasova, Sofia, 2017).
Ines
has also taken part in many concerts at various venues within Sofia, including:
Studio 5, Bulgarian National Radio
Concert Studio, “Lyubomir Pipkov” National School of Music – Concert Hall,
Bulgaria Hall, National Palace of Culture, Summer Academy of Arts (Sozopol) and
others. She has participated in such festivals as Sofia Music Weeks (2017), The
Music of Europe (2018), ppIANISSIMO
(2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) and ICon Arts (Romania, 2019).
(© Doroteya Dimitrova)
* * *
Tatyana Zhelyazkova (b. 1997) was born in Dobrich (Bulgaria).
She started her music education at the age of seven at the “Lyubomir Pipkov”
National Music School (Sofia). She continued her studies at the “Prof. Pancho
Vladigerov” National Academy of Music (Sofia) in the flute class of Prof.
Georgi Spasov. In 2017, she was admitted to the High
School of Music Musik in Nürnberg in the class of
Prof. Anne-Cathérine Heinzmann, with whom
she currently continues her education at the Folkwang University of the
Arts in Essen.
She has participated in master classes with famous flutists such as Philippe
Bernold, Paolo Taballione, Michael Kofler, Davide Formisano, Mario Caroli, Anna
Garzuly, Robert Dick, Nicola Mazzanti, Berten D’Hollander and others.
Tatyana Zhelyazkova has won awards from the competitions Young Virtuosos (Sofia), Music
and Earth (Sofia), Hopes, Talents, Masters (Dobrich), the International Competition for
Austrian Chamber Music in Sofia, the International Competition in Varna and
others. In 2019, she became a finalist at the Dutch International Flute Competition.
* * *
Angelina-Ogniana Gotcheva (b. 1992) has graduated from the “Lyubomir Pipkov”
National School of Music (Sofia) and from the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov”
National Academy of Music (Sofia) in the class of Prof. Borislav Yotsov. From
2013 to 2015, she was an Erasmus Student at Royal Conservatory in Antwerp in
the class of Prof. Ivo Lybeert and Asst. Prof. Raymond Dils. She has also
studied with Pascal Moraguès, Chen Halevi, Eli Eban, Evgeni Petrov, Sharon Kam,
Luis Lossi, Jean-Luc Votano and others. Additionally, she has participated in
master classes of Jörg Widmann, Ralph Manno and Philippe Cuper. Among the
festivals she has attended are the Chamber Music Course and Festival Musica Mundi in Belgium (2009, 2010 and
2011), where she worked with Sir Walter Boeykens. She has also participated at
the International Summer Academy ISA (Austria, 2013), where she worked with
Jiří Hlaváč and the Accademia Chigiana
in Siena (Italy, 2017), working with Alessandro Carbonare and David
Krakauer.
She has been awarded numerous prizes at national and international
competitions such as: Magic (Burgas),
Young Musicians Chamber Music
Competition in Edirne (Turkey), International Chamber Music Competition in
Plovdiv, Young Virtuosos
International Competition (Sofia), as well as the special prizes of EMCY and Cantus Firmus.
She has been a soloist of New
Symphony Orchestra, Classic FM
Orchestra, the philharmonic orchestras of Sofia, Vidin and Shumen, the
Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp and others. In 2009–11, she was
first clarinet in the Sofia Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and, during 2011–15,
in the student orchestras of the National Academy of Music (Sofia) and of the
Royal Conservatory in Antwerp. During
the season 2016/2017, she was an intern at the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.
She
is active as both a soloist and a chamber musician. Together with Ensemble SILAKBO, she has taken part in successful international projects such as Est-Ouest, SynAESTHETICS and others, including world premieres of pieces
written specifically for the ensemble. In 2019, she made the Bulgarian premiere
of Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto.
She is featured on recordings of the Bulgarian National Radio.
* * *
Sara Panosyan
(b.
1993) has
graduated from the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National
School of Music and Performing Arts in Burgas under Lyudmila Ivanova and the
“Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of Music (NAM) in Sofia under Prof.
Verka Stefanova. She subsequently specialised with Prof. Yosif Radionov. Since
2018, she has been a PhD student at the Department of Chamber Music and
Accompaniment of NAM with Prof. Georgita Boyadzhieva-Nikolova, PhD, as doctoral
advisor.
She
has been an active participant in the violin master classes of Gil Shaham,
Vladimir Spivakov, Jean-Ter Merguerian, Barbara Doll, Sebastian Gürtler, Vesko
Panteleev-Eschkenazy, Mincho Minchev, Micho Dimitrov, Vesselin Parashkevov and
in the chamber music master classes of Hatto Beyerle, Avedis Kouyoumdjian,
Evgenia Epshtein, Johannes Meissl, Peter Schuhmayer, Péter Nagy and others.
She
has been a soloist and chamber musician at various festivals including Sofia Music Weeks, European Music Festival, ppIANISSIMO,
Via Pontica, ISA Festival at the International Summer Academy of the University
of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Aurora
Classical Music Festival in Stockholm and others.
She
has performed as a soloist of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academic
Symphony Orchestra and the Student String Orchestra of the NAM. She has played
as part of the Sofia Philharmonic, the Classic FM Radio Orchestra, the New
Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and others.
Sara
Panosyan has won a number of awards from national and international
competitions as solo and ensemble performer.
* * *
Stefania Yankova
(b. 1988) started to play the violin at the age of six. Studying initially at the “Lyubomir Pipkov” National School of Music
in Sofia, at the age of 13 she started playing the viola in the class of Prof.
Cavid Cafer in Ankara. She continued her education at the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Music Academy (NAM) in the viola class
of Prof. Stefan Zhilkov as well as at the High School of Music and Theatre in
Hamburg and at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in the
class of Prof. Thomas Selditz. She has attended the master
classes of Michael Tree (founding member of Guarneri
Quartet), Hartmut Rohde, Elmar Landerer (member of the Vienna Philharmonic),
Volkhard Steude (Concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic), Sigfried Führlinger, Gavriel Lipkind, Wolfgang Klos, Günter Pichler
(founder of Alban Berg Quartet) and
others.
She
is a laureate of international competitions such as the National Competition
“Svetoslav Obretenov” (Provadia), the International
Competition for Austrian Chamber Music in Sofia and the Young Virtuosos Competition in
Sofia.
She
has taken part in many different chamber music and solo concerts in Austria,
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Spain and
Turkey with Gérard Caussé, Raffaele Malozzi, Augustin Dumay, Gary Hoffman,
Frank Braley and Mario Hossen among others.
Stefania Yankova is a recipient of the scholarship of Thomastik-Infeld Vienna. Since 2017, she has been the Principal Viola of the Bulgarian
National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Currently, she is a PhD student at the NAM.
* * *
Maria Vasileva
(b.
1990) studied cello at the
“Dobri Hristov” National School of Arts in Varna with Lyubka Angelova and at
the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of Music (NAM) in Sofia with
Prof. Anatoli Krastev. Since 2015, she has been a PhD student in chamber music
at NAM with Prof. Georgita Boyadzhieva-Nikolova, PhD, as doctoral advisor.
She
has participated in many master classes for cello and chamber music, including
those of Yang Chang Cho, Xenia Jankovic, Alexander Hülshoff, Robert Cohen,
Jahannes Meissl, Georg Baich, Marina Kapitanova, Stefan Gardmayer, Álvaro
Huertas, Mats Lidström, Peter Meintz, Dilyana Momchilova, Hatto Beyerle, Avedis
Kouyoumdjian, Evgenia Epshtein, Peter Schuhmayer and Péter Nagy.
She
has participated in various music festivals, including Sofia Music Weeks, European
Music Festival, ppIANISSIMO, ISA
Festival at the International Summer Academy of the University
of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and others.
In
2010, she joined the Classic FM Radio Orchestra
of and, since 2018, she has been performing as part of the cello group of the
Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Maria
Vasileva is a laureate of many awards from national and international
competitions, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician.
(© Teodor Masov)
* * *
Martina Miteva (b. 1991) was born in
Plovdiv. Initially she played the piano and subsequently took up percussion
instruments. She completed her secondary education at the “Dobrin Petkov”
National School of Music and Dance (Plovdiv) in the percussion class of Pencho
Penchev. In 2016, she graduated with a master’s degree from the “Prof. Pancho
Vladigerov” National Music Academy in the percussion class of Prof. Tatyana
Karparova. During her student years, she also attended pedagogical practice in
percussion instruments at the “Lyubomir Pipkov” National Music School with the
leading teacher in the field, Maria Palieva.
She
has participated in numerous competitions, festivals and master classes. She
has won numerous awards as a soloist and with various chamber ensembles.
In
2017, she was appointed as a tympanist in the New Symphony Orchestra.
That same year, she became a tympanist and leader of the percussion group at
the Sofia Philharmonic.
She
has performed with various orchestral formations in the country and abroad,
performing in numerous concerts and studio recordings.
* * *
Bogdan Ivanov (b. 1993) graduated from the National School for Music and Dance Arts in Plovdiv
in the piano class of Elena Velcheva. He earned a Master’s Degree at the “Prof.
Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of Music (NAM) in Sofia, where he studied
in the piano class of Prof. Yovcho Krushev and Asst. Prof. Ognyana Sokolova. During 2016–17, he was an Erasmus student at the Royal Conservatory of
Music of Antwerp in the class of Eliane Rodrigues. He has also attended the
master classes of Daniel Pollack, David Krakauer, Johannes Kropfitsch, Miri Yampolsky, Milena Mollova, Stella
Dimitrova-Maystorova, Tamara Poddubnaya, Sandu Sandrin and others.
He is the winner of many national and international music competitions,
including the “Dimitar Nenov” (Razgrad, 2014) and the “Liszt – Bartok – Kodaly”
(Sofia, 2017) piano competitions, as well as the International Chamber Music
Competition in Plovdiv (2015) for his duo with clarinettist
Angelina-Ogniana Gotcheva. In 2016, he was also
awarded the prize of the “Lyuba Encheva” Foundation.
He has given many solo recitals and appeared as soloist with the
philharmonic orchestras of Sofia, Plovdiv, Ruse, Vratsa and Razgrad, as well as
with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the NAM. As part of the international
ensemble SILAKBO, he has given world
premieres and participated in festivals, such as ppIANISSIMO and Zomer van
Antwerpen, as well as at the Chigiana Summer Academy (Siena), where he worked
with David Krakauer.
Since 2017, he has been teaching piano at the “Lubomir Pipkov” National
School of Music in Sofia. As of 2018, he also pursues a PhD at the NAM.
(© Maria Radeva)
* * *
Svetlin Hristov
(b. 1991) graduated as a pianist at the “Prof. Vesselin
Stoyanov”
National Music School in Rousse (Bulgaria) in the
class of the renowned pedagogue Evgeni Zheliazkov and afterwards continued his
studies at the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of Music in Sofia in
piano with Prof. Atanas Kurtev, orchestra conducting with Prof. Plamen Djouroff
and Assoc. Prof. Georgi Patrikov and composition with Prof. Velislav Zaimov.
From September 2015 to June 2016, he specialised piano at the Moscow State
Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Prof. Alexander Vershinin. In 2017, he attended
the ISA Allegra choir conducting
master class of Marcus Utz and Denis Rouger in Rousse. Currently, Svetlin
Hristov is a PhD student at the National Academy of Music in Sofia.
He
has won prizes at numerous international piano competitions such as “Chopin”
Piano Competition in Varna (Bulgaria), “Carl Filtsch” Competition for Pianists
in Sibiu (Romania), “Scriabin – Rachmaninov” Competition in Sofia and others.
He
has conducted the Academy Symphony Orchestra of the National Academy of Music
in Sofia, the Vidin Philharmonic Orchestra and various chamber ensembles. In
the recent years, he has gained experience as an orchestral pianist playing in the
Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of “Stephen
Makedonski” National Musical Theatre in Sofia.
His
music has been played at several festivals such as ppIANISSIMO (2015 and 2019) and the Plovdiv Fresh Festival (2017
and 2019), as well as in various concerts in Bulgaria, Croatia and Russia. In
2019, his piece Monologue for Four
was chosen for the International Rostrum of Composers Competition in Argentina.
* * *
The ppIANISSIMO Ensemble, similarly to the mythical figure of Proteus, is a
mutable in form and appearance, open chamber ensemble of the international
festival of the same name. It has been founded with two main aims in mind – the
realisation of premiere performances of chamber works for different
configurations of instruments and the possibility for joint appearance of
already established, emerging and debut performers in the field of contemporary
music. Through its versatility and unrestricted timbre composition, the
ensemble could easily become a music workshop providing all the necessary
conditions for all kinds of sound experiments for adventurous composers,
conductors, instrumentalists and singers.
* * *
The Composer
Eunho Chang
(b. 1983) was born in South Korea and began his musical studies on the piano at
the age of seven. He graduated in composition from the Keimyung University
(bachelor’s degree) and then from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music
(master’s degree), where he also obtained his PhD in composition. He has been
selected for various workshops and master classes, such as Impuls Academy, Voix
Nouvelles and Matrix12”, where he
has worked with leading composers such as Unsuk Chin, Chaya Czernowin, Brian
Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Fabien Lévy, Oscar Bianchi and Clemens Gadenstätter.
He has been a lecturer at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw
since 2011.
His compositions have been performed in most
European countries as well as in South Korea and the USA by outstanding
ensembles and orchestras such as TIMF Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Contrechamps, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Tactus, Musiques Nouvelles, Sound New Ensemble, SurPlus Ensemble, Ensemble Kwartludium, Ensemble
SORI, Neo Quartet, Mark Pekarsky
Percussion Ensemble, The President’s Own United States Marine Band, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish
Radio and Television Symphonic
Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic
Orchestra, Kyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra, Suyeol Choi, as well as by prominent
soloists like Sandro Gorli, William Blank, Carlos Kalmar, Enno Poppe,
Jean-Paul Dessy, Gregory Charette, Kristof Barati, Michinori Bunya, Felix Renggli and Angele Chemin. His works have been radio broadcast in South Korea,
Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Switzerland.
He has been selected as composer-in-residence
by Ensemble
Polywerk, Ensemble
Kwartludium, Voix Nouvelles, Tactus Compose’s Forum in Belgium and the National
Conservatory of Prague. In 2014, he was granted a portrait concert
by the Arts Council Korea and also received the Pro Polonia scholarship from 2009 to 2011. In
2015, a portrait CD of his music was released on Requiem Records. Subsequently, in 2017,
the same label together with DUX in
Poland released the album Memory
with Chang’s piano music. The portrait CD Kaleidoscope with some of his chamber works was released by
KAIROS in 2018. His works are published by Simon Verlag in Germany and by the Sejong Cultural Society in the
USA.
Eunho
Chang’s output includes more than 50 works from solo instruments to full
orchestra, as well as choral works and a chamber opera. He has also been
awarded numerous domestic and international awards for composition. His passion
is to express the various spontaneous timbres, patterns and gestures
originating from traditional Korean music with contemporary techniques. Also,
emulating the aesthetic lines of oriental painting, he tries to express
musically the freedom and autonomy of each painted brush stroke. This is the
conceptual core of his works.
(© Anita Wąsik)
* * *
The
Works
Punkt Line is a series of solo
piano pieces of mine composed from 2016 and 2019 to express points and lines in
an abstract way. Repetitive rhythm patterns represent points thanks to staccato
and certain notes, while radical figuration or slow melodies embody lines.
Points and lines are contrasted as the composition progresses. The repeating
figuration of the high register and the lyrical melody in the middle of the work
can also be seen as a way of expressing lines.
Eunho Chang
The piece Gohok (Fascination) is divided into three parts. The first part starts
with flute solo and afterwards, when other instruments enter, it develops into the
concept of an ensemble rather than a solo. The second part may give an
impression of an extension of the first part. However, the ensemble is led
revolving around the flute solo. Stereotypic motto is played by some
instruments to maintain the unity of this piece. The third part features
several distinctive elements, for example, flute
overblowing, glissando in the string instruments and
pizzicato played inside the piano.
In general, the method of repeatedly playing certain elements in
accordance with the musical flow rather than progressing and changing some of
the existing themes to let the listeners have their perception is used in the way of
developing the piece. Thus, the most important aspects of understanding this
piece are firstly the acoustic sonority and resonance from the horizontal and
vertical perspectives of sound. Secondly, instead of musical flow from a sole
style such as development, contradiction, modification or other factors, the
music is based on changing ambiguous status, vague boundary, complex tone and
instant feeling and environment, which are similar to that of Impressionism.
The flute solo represents the idea of fascinating beauty. The
height of beauty expressed with one fascinating line, while the harmony created
with the other instruments is like a scent that makes this fascination even
brighter.
In Panorama the composer undertakes once more a descriptive theme
of beauty: beautiful and brilliant, the wonders of nature and vast power! Most
of the things made in nature are always next to our lives. The random phenomenon
created in nature takes various elements and methods. Among the many energies
that make life, light and the Sun are the motto. The music expresses
metaphorically the light and its transparency, as well as the energy of the
light and the Sun in various ways. Written two years after Gohok in 2015, this work features dynamics of sound, which are
facilitated by the ensemble line-up: flute (including alto flute), clarinet
(including bass clarinet), percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello.
This piece utilises a colourful panorama of sounds which form the
basis of the central sounds of the work’s individual fragments. This is
reminiscent of Giacinto Scelsi’s late works; however, one can detect a
different flow of energy in Chang’s music. An entire spectacle of instrumental
virtuosity takes place against a background of static central sounds. The
individual musical rhetorical figures have been set “inter-instrumentally”,
thereby rendering the effect of “timbre hypnosis” even more potent. The music
flows in an unknown direction, yet we are securely guided by the composer
throughout. The inner tension does not relax for even an instant, whereas both
dense and light textures augment the effect of inner dynamism in the work’s
individual fragments.
Dariusz Przybylski
My music, simply put, is meant to express the sound
of nature in a combination of various tones. These sounds instantly mix
harmoniously and appear as complex second dimensional reverberations of abstract sounds. This is the
holistic description of my music.
Eunho Chang
