Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra

Saturday, February 17, 2024 @ 7:00pm

State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Nayden Todorov, Principal Conductor

Liya Petrova, Violin

PROGRAM

Mozart, Overture to the Marriage of Figaro Opera 

Mozart, Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major

Mozart, Symphony No. 40 in G minor

In 1945 the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra became the national orchestra of Bulgaria and has long established itself as one of the leading cultural institutions, representative of the overall contemporary musical culture of the country. The repertoire of the Sofia Philharmonic comprises works from the entire historically available range of music—from classical to contemporary opuses, including premiere performances of numerous works by Bulgarian composers. The orchestra has garnered substantial recognition all over the world. It has guest-performed with great success in the major musical centres across Europe, Asia, and North America, and has received acclaim even from the most demanding of audiences. The Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded many prestigious accolades including: “Musician of the Year,” “Golden Lyre,” “Golden Stave,” “Golden Quill,” “Crystal Lyre,” the Honorary Sign of Sofia, and the Honorary Sign of the President of Bulgaria. Maestro Nayden Todorov has been the general director of the Sofia Philharmonic since 2017.

Nayden Todorov studied orchestral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 1996 he made his U.S. debut and short after he was invited by the Israeli Leonard Bernstein Foundation to the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, where he specialized under Mendi Rodan. In 1997 he founded the Thracian Summer Festival in Plovdiv. A year later, he received his first permanent international engagement in Haifa, Israel, with the North Israel Symphony Orchestra. From 2005-2017 Maestro Todorov was the director of the State Opera in Rousse. In 2006 he made his debut with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and a year later he conducted the concerts of its tour to the largest cities in Japan. This was followed by debuts at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow and at the Vienna Volksoper. In 2001 he made his debut with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and was elected its director in 2017. Since 2018, as part of the educational policy of the Sofia Philharmonic, Todorov became the host of the classical music program of the Bulgarian National Television. In 2019, for his concerts with the Sofia Philharmonic, he was voted Musician of the Year for the second time by the listeners of the Bulgarian National Radio.

Liya Petrova is a First Prize Winner at the International Carl Nielsen Violin Competition 2016 in Denmark. She is praised for her “Effortless virtuosity” (The Strad) and “Exceptional tonal variety“ (Gramophone). She has won numerous prizes at international competitions including the Concours International de Violon Tibor Varga, the International Louis Spohr Competition, and the Vaclav Huml Competition, among others. As a soloist Petrova has performed with many renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique Luxembourg, the Filharmonie Antwerp, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, and others. Her first solo album with the Odense Symphony Orchestra under Kristiina Poska, including Nielsen and Prokofiev first Violin concerto for Orchid Classic Label (2018) brought her international critical acclaim.