AmBul Festival

On 4PM on Sunday, October 2, at Studio 5 of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, the AmBul Festival opens with a marathon concert, “7.5 Hours for Steve Reich at 75”. This multi-faceted portrait of one of America’s greatest living composers includes interviews with Reich, a visualization of his “Music for 18 Musicians” by Spartak Yordanov and Ralitsa Toneva, and live performances by well-known Bulgarian musicians such as Bobby Yotsov, Mila Pavlova, Angela Tosheva, the Valtchev Guitar Duo, and the Frosh Quartet. Music by John Adams, Demetrius Spaneas, and Mihail Goleminov, is also on the program of AmBul’s first marathon-length concert.

The AmBul Festival of American and Bulgarian Music is an established forum for new and little known works by American and Bulgarian composers, where artists from Bulgaria and the U.S. meet and collaborate and where young musicians work together with seasoned new-music specialists. The 2011 edition of the festival is the fifth under the name AmBul and the eleventh since it was founded by Geoffrey Dean in 1998 as American Music Week in Bulgaria. AmBul is for anyone who is interested in a different kind of musical celebration, with outstanding performances and based on intriguing artistic ideas. As always, admission to all of the festival events is free.

AmBul 11 is made possible by the generous financial support of the Culture Program of the Sofia Municipality, the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture, and the U.S. Embassy in Sofia.