Kaval-player Vladimir Velichkov is a performing artist who has been a member of different musical formations and has taken part in Bulgarian and international projects. He has been awarded prizes at various competitions and has made recordings with musicians of world renown. In his hands the kaval (shepherd’s flute) forms sounds no one ever suspected were possible, especially in improvisations and various musical styles and genres – ethno, jazz, rock, classical music.

Vladimir was only six when he started playing the kaval without ever having listened to the instrument. At the time, in his home town of Pleven when he was in the first grade, his father insisted that he play every day. Later he discovered the pleasure of playing in a group - with the folklore orchestra at the chitalishte (community culture club) in the town.

He graduated the Panayot Pipkov National Art School where he did classical and folk music simultaneously with kaval teacher Valentin Nedyalkov who gave him a taste for the “modern sound”. For a short while Vladimir Velichkov was soloist of the Dunav (Danube) Folk Song and Dance Ensemble in Vidin. The ensemble’s conductor Gencho Genchev gave him the following advice: “You have no business playing here, you must apply to the academy in Plovdiv.” During his student years Vladimir played with the academy orchestra and then started as guest lecturer at the University of Plovdiv. His impeccable professionalism opened up the way for experiments in different directions. But how did this interest come about? Vladimir Velichkov:

“The first time I heard this kind of music and interpretation of folklore was from an Ivo Papazov-Petar Ralchev record. It affected me like a nuclear explosion. Folklore, combined with jazz opened my eyes for this manner of playing. There is a very big difference between improvising in folklore and improvising in jazz. With folklore, the soloist plays and everybody else follows his lead, whereas with jazz the principle is different. I don’t have all that many recordings because I want to be sure that all the musical elements are fine-tuned: the musical backbone, the idea, suited to the subtleties of kaval playing, the different nuances, tone-building, the dialogue with the different instruments. I can safely say that the kaval rivals the clarinet and the flute.”

Which are the most inspiring musical encounters in Vladimir’s life?

“I would say – my meeting with Stanley Jordan - a foremost guitarist of our day. He is the first person to have started playing the guitar using both hands, without using a plectrum on the fingerboard. I watched him on a TV show. A friend from Plovdiv called me up and said: “Get your kaval and come right over to the hall.” So, I went and there were a great many musicians there, but none of them folklore musicians, they were all jazzmen, pianists. Then he said to me: “Stanley Jordan is coming, you have to do something together.” I didn’t know I would be playing with him, neither did he. It so happened we met on stage and it was so interesting. Afterwards we talked into the night. I have received invitations from him for joint projects, I was so happy.”

As kaval lecturer at the University of Plovdiv, Vladimir Velichkov is organizer of a webinar “The art of the kaval – traditions and modernity,” held for the first time in Bulgaria as a way to assist students using latest technologies.

“The university gave me all the support I needed for this initiative. The webinar hall with an online connection with any point on the planet in real time, was created by university staff. I got in touch with many friends, kaval-players in South America, Africa, Australia, Holland, France, Denmark. We are accustomed to the idea that the kaval is a Bulgarian instrument, though its roots actually go back in time to the Middle East. They say that rituals were performed in antiquity seeking a bond between things physical and things spiritual. In Mesopotamia the people who played a very similar instrument were themselves called kaval. In time, the instrument itself came to be called that.”

Vladimir Velichkov is also familiar with what is known as wedding music.

“I started playing wedding music when I was still at school. I have played with quite a few famous names from Northern Bulgaria; from the Thracian region I have performed with Ivo Papazov, Neshko Neshev, Osman Zhekov. And when I was invited by Atanas Stoev, leader of Kanarite, I joined them. We have had months in which we have performed more than 20 times. I shall never forget what Atanas Stoev said to me when he gave me two sets of stage costumes: “Whether you shall wear them two months, two years or twenty years is up to you. We chose you, so you can continue with Kanarite”. And so – I am with them to this day.

English version: Milena Daynova