On December 21, the last concert of the London Film Music Orchestra will take place in Covent Garden, with special guest Chris Nicolaides. Several pieces by the famous film music composer will be featured in the program, as well as more popular works of this genre.

The orchestra was founded in 2014 by two Bulgarians - sisters Rositsa and Ivelina Doushev who continue to stage 3 concerts annually. Rossitsa is a cellist, while Ivelina is a pianist. They have been living in London for nearly 10 years. They were born in Pomorie, graduated from the National School of Music and Stage Arts in Burgas, the National Academy of Music in Sofia and Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. We learned more about how they decided to create the orchestra, as well as more details about the upcoming concert Rositsa:

“For many people it's strange and they often ask me how the idea of ​​this orchestra was born. Life in London is fast, as everywhere else. I remember it was a very hot summer day and I was going to see my sister who had just given birth to her first child. I was thinking what we could do to get out of this closed circle of routine activities related to teaching, etc. I wanted to create an orchestra, but it was to be different from the others and was to be entirely devoted to film music. I shared my idea with Iva and literally the same day we started working on the project. She created a web site, announced auditions, started rehearsals, and three months later we staged the first concert. The London Film Music Orchestra has participated in the British X Factor. Last year it took part in the Wireless Festival with over 50,000-strong audience, is recording regularly.

We have long wanted to play music based on Bulgarian folklore. When we were preparing the program this summer and I heard the soundtrack of Tristan again. I heard Bulgarian motifs, Bulgarian voices, Bulgarian ‘kaval’. I remembered my grandfather in Bulgaria ... Unfortunately, he passed away days ago, but we dedicate this performance to him. Soloist is Maria Georgieva, who has been studying in London. Another song with Bulgarian voices is from the Hollywood motion picture Never Give Up. The arrangement is for choir and orchestra and in addition to Maria there are three more Bulgarian soloists – Zhasmina Zhivkova, Kristina Todorova, Gergana Sirkarova. Perhaps, this song will be the culmination of the whole concert.”

English version: Alexander Markov