4th April (Saturday), 19:00, NAM, Concert Hall – ppIANISSIMO ENSEMBLE / INES SIMEONOVA / PORTRAIT OF EUNHO CHANG


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
piano
&
Eunho Chang
piano


Gohok for solo flute and five instruments (2012–13) *

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


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This concert has been made possible
thanks to the generous support of:

https://www.arko.or.kr/eng/main.jsp

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 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)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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