The Bulgarian National Radio Big Band has delighted music fans with fragments from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess opera in the Gil Evans adaptation. The premiere was held on 12 December 2013 during the New Year Music Festival at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. Later, the fragments were presented in concert again, at BNR’s Studio One. The Binar program of the National Radio has video-recorded the event that you can watch here:
The off-the-wall arrangements have been created by internationally acclaimed musician Gil Evans for prominent jazz trumpet player Miles Davis. In 1958 the music score went mysteriously missing. Thirty years on, in the 1990s, at the initiative of celebrity musician Quincy Jones and thanks to preserved audio recordings, the score was reproduced. The work was presented anew with soloist Miles Davis. The unique music scores have been provided to the Bulgarian National Radio by the Gil Evans family.
„I am absolutely positive that this is a remarkable project. Gil Evans is a big name and even after his death his music continues to inspire jazz musicians. Therefore it is important to revisit his contribution into art, and commemorate him for his 101st birth anniversary. Fortunately, Bulgaria boasts three brilliant trumpet musicians – Rosen Zahariev, Ventzislav Blagoev and Mihail Yosifov, so I decided to work with them on Porgy and Bess”, says Anthony Dontchev, Chief Conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Big Band.
English version: Daniela Konstantinova
At the end of summer, Severin Georgiev presents his latest song ''Shte Vali/It Will Rain’’. This is Severin’s second song. He is known as a participant in the latest season of the Bulgarian reality singing competition '' The Voice of Bulgaria''...
The band Ostava has made something of a tradition out of celebrating its birthday in September with a concert at Maimunarnika in Sofia. This year the concert will be on Wednesday, 11 September. And at that concert Ostava will perform their..
The author of the music, lyrics and arrangement is Dimityr Bodurov - a small-town boy who moved to the central city of Stara Zagora some time ago. An ardent music lover since childhood, he has recorded original songs, only one of which he had the..
Opera basso Slavin Peev will mark two decades on stage with famed arias from opera classics at the chamber Bulgaria hall in Sofia on 5 October. He..
The BNR Children's Choir is one of the finalists in the prestigious Let the Peoples Sing international competition for non-professional choirs. The..
+359 2 9336 661