Music from Monk and More, a project by renowned jazz composer and pianist Mario Stantchev, will be performed on 10 January, in one of the Lyon Opera House’s concert spaces. It will be presented by Mario Stantchev New Bulgarian Trio, featuring Mario Stantchev, Hristo Yotsov (drums) and Dimitar Karamfilov (double bass).

The project, in which Mario Stantchev pays tribute to the inimitable American jazzman Thelonious Monk, interweaving his own ideas with Monk’s ideas, is not new to audiences in Bulgaria. In 2020 it was recorded at the Bulgarian National Radio’s concert studio, Studio No. 1, and was presented in Plovdiv. The film made of the concert at Bee Bop Café is now available on social media.

“The project which has one binding “script”, throws a line between the music by Monk and mine,” says Mario Stantchev in an interview with Radio Bulgaria. As to the upcoming concert in Lyon, the jazz musician, who has been living and working in France for decades says:“I am happy we are able to present our music at the Lyon Opera. The concerts organized there are dedicated to unorthodox piano projects. I am always delighted to play with Bulgarian musicians – they are terrific, as musicians but also as friends.”

Listen to one of the pieces which the audience in Lyon are going to hear – Blue Monk, performed by Mario Stantchev, Hristo Yotsov and Dimitar Karamfilov.

Editing by Albena Bezovska