Intro to 2009 festival

Welcome to the AmBul Festival of American and Bulgarian Music. Since 1998 the festival has brought composers and performers from the US and Europe to Sofia, Bulgaria, for a series of world and regional premiere performances, introducing local audiences to several hundred new and neglected works, most of them by American and Bulgarian composers. In 2009, the ninth edition of the festival expands these parameters by including works by composers from other Balkan countries and a concert of works from Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s years in the United States. It also includes an evening of collectively-composed works ala the Cage / Cowell / Harrison / Thomson Party Pieces and collectively-improvised pieces ala John Zorn’s Cobra. The artists and ensembles joining us in Sofia this year include many who are new to the festival, such as composers Stefania de Kenessey (USA), Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin (Bulgaria/Austria), and Athanasia Tzanou (Greece/Germany), flutist Nina Assimakopoulos (USA) and soprano Susan Brownfield (USA), the Clarinet Quintet of the US Air Force in Europe (USA/Germany), the Frosh Quartet (Bulgaria), and the Gologan ethno-rock poetry band (USA/Bulgaria).

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