Off the Beaten Path festival brings new music to new stages across Bulgaria

The eighth edition of the Off the Beaten Path Chamber Music Festival, founded by distinguished Bulgarian musicians living and working in the United States, will take place from July 29 to August 8 in five small towns and villages across Bulgaria: Kovachevitsa, Dobrinishte, Gotse Delchev, Troyan and Karpachevo.

Over the past seven editions, the festival has brought together acclaimed Bulgarian and international performers to present chamber music in unconventional venues across the country. Its home has traditionally been the Svetlina Community Centre in the picturesque Rhodope village of Kovachevitsa.

This year, the programme of the Off the Beaten Path Festival also includes concerts in Gotse Delchev and Dobrinishte in Southwestern Bulgaria, as well as events in Karpachevo and Troyan in Northern Bulgaria. The festival will visit Troyan for the first time on August 6.

At the heart of this year's programme are the world premieres of new works by American composer David Ludwig, Dean and Chair of Composition Studies at The Juilliard School in New York; Penka Kouneva, the most successful Bulgarian composer working in Hollywood and a Grammy Award winner; and Petar Kerkelov, Associate Professor and Head of the Composition Department at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia.

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The village of Kovachevitsa will also host the launch of a new residency programme for emerging young composers, who will have the opportunity to work closely with the three distinguished artists. The festival is continuing its collaboration with internationally acclaimed Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova, whose music will be performed at new festival venues.

Among this summer's featured performers are violinists Bella Hristova, Nikola Takov and Georgi Valchev; pianist Lora Tchekoratova; mezzo-soprano Mariana Karpatova; clarinettist Karin Dornbusch; cellist Alexander Somov; flautist Mark Sparks; and violist Boris Tonkov.

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Edited by Tsvetana Toncheva