Musical-visual performance by the piano duo Atmospheres and Venelin Shurelov
Jaan Raats - 24 Marginalia for Two Pianos, Op. 68 (1982), Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 82 (1990)
Tickets cost 15 leva.
Free admission for children under 12.
The piano duo Atmospheres is shaping up to be an extremely interesting ensemble with a marked affinity for contemporary music. The musical sensitivity of Mila Mihova and Alexandra Dicheva makes them intriguing storytellers of musical tales. Their delicate approach to each piece and their ability to build on the moods in each program they perform will undoubtedly earn them a well-deserved place on the Bulgarian music scene, because their ensemble is distinguished by a musicality and aesthetic that cannot go unappreciated by true lovers of classical music.
Jaan Raats 24 Marginalia for Two Pianos, Op. 68 (1982) Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 82 (1990)
Estonian composer Jaan Raats cultivates his own vivid musical language, which follows the impulses of his intuition. He himself says that he does not like to limit his compositions to the context of a specific compositional technique, but rather uses the means of music to aid his imagination. The two foundations on which Raats builds his musical environment are the ostinato rhythmic pulse and the kaleidoscopic fragmentation of sound. The mechanical pulsation creates a sense of irreversibility and distance from the musical experience. On the other hand, the listener is drawn into the chaos of rapidly changing and ambivalent states. The fleeting nature of each state prevents it from being named, creating an unstable atmosphere. Raats' music is like a mosaic of tonal harmony and modernist clusters, polyphonic relief and folk melodies, unwavering monotony and humorous playfulness and self-irony. The abstract nature of Jaan Raats' music stimulates associative thinking. This allows for broad artistic and intellectual freedom for the performer and listener. Thus, both take on the role of interpreter. Piano Duo Atmospheres
In the context of the musical program, the marginalia are 24 short pieces without any overall dramatic development or narrative. Each marginalia embodies a different borderline state (primitive aggression, meditative contemplation, unshakeable determination, sharp sarcasm, etc.). The marginalia lack a climax; they are like a prelude to the sonata. Its larger form, being one of the most stable musical forms in general, contrasts with the minimalist short marginalia. In sonata form, Jaan Raats' music has the space to develop and accumulate energy to reach its catharsis in the last movement, which is also the climax of the program.
Behind the poetic name "Atmospheres" are two young pianists – Mila Mihova and Alexandra Dicheva. Different in temperament and nature, they manage to create a harmonious musical whole on stage. Their paths to music are different. Mila Mihova went through all the usual stages in the development of a musician – she studied at the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School in Emilia Kaneva's class and then took the natural step of continuing her education at the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music. Alexandra Dicheva graduated from the Vasil Karagiozov Language High School in her hometown of Yambol with the Ministry of Education and Science's National Diploma, but then chose to apply to the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music instead of university. It was there, in Prof. Dr. Borislava Taneva's class, that Mila and Alexandra first met. After successfully completing their bachelor's and master's degrees, the two pianists continued their development at the Academy as regular doctoral students – Alexandra in the specialty "Chamber Singing-Piano" with scientific supervisor Prof. Dr. Boryana Lambreva and Mila in the specialty "Piano" with scientific supervisor Prof. Dr. Borislava Taneva.
The Atmospheres duo made its debut in 2017 at the anniversary edition of the ppIANISSIMO International Festival for Contemporary Piano Music with premiere performances of works by Penka Kuneva and Konstantin Ilievski. This was followed by a series of significant creative encounters with musicians such as Plamena Mangova, Prof. Tomislav Bainov, Prof. Maya Raikovich, Prof. Avedis Kuyumdzhan, Prof. Alan Fraser, and Prof. Lyudmil Angelov, who honed the talent of the two young pianists and broadened their professional horizons. Of key importance for the creative development of the Atmospheres piano duo was their participation in 2019 in the International Summer Academy "isa" at the University of Music and Performing Arts "mdw" in Vienna, where they had the opportunity to work with the Berlin piano duo Silver-Garburg. In 2020, they also took part in the first digital edition of isa-digital. August 2021 will mark their third participation in the International Summer Academy isa, supported by the National Culture Fund. Mila and Alexandra are currently regular students in the Silver-Garburg piano duo class at the conservatory in Graz, Austria, in the master's program for piano duos.
One of the driving forces behind the Atmospheres duo is discovery—they are motivated to discover and perform lesser-known works by both Bulgarian and foreign composers. The piano duo has premiered Bulgarian works by Yulia Tsenova and Laura Al-Ahmad at the Tchaikovsky Cultural Center in Moscow, as well as studio recordings of works by Brazilian composers as part of the festival Musica rara Brasileira – a series of chamber music from Brazil, organized by the Zenon Cultural Institute. At the Sofia Music Weeks International Festival, they made their debut with music for two pianos by Alexander Scriabin, Alfred Schnittke, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. For this recital, the piano duo was awarded the Crystal Lyre for 2022. In the same year, the Atmospheres piano duo received a development grant from the Cultural Perspectives Foundation.
Venelin Shurelov was born in 1977 in Burgas, Bulgaria. He lives and works in Sofia. He graduated in Scenography from the National Academy of Arts, Bulgaria – PhD (2009). Co-founder and lecturer in the Master's program in Digital Arts, National Academy of Arts (2008-); co-founder, part of the curatorial team, and technical organizer of DA Fest – International Festival for Digital Art (2009-). Founder of SubHuman Theatre (2004) and the art group Via Pontica (2002-2005).
Velin Shurelov is the author of various interactive installations and performances, some of which are Drawing Machine (2005), "Fantomat" (2008), "Orthoman" (2009), "Tabula Rasa" (2010), "Shooting Range" (2012), and "Rotor" (2016), which was presented at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz. In 2011, he gave the cyber-lecture Man Ex Machina, and in 2016, he staged the performance installation Post-Everything as a guest lecturer at Towson University, USA.
His projects are diverse and include drawing, interactive installation and performance, digital technologies, video, and art theory. He has a number of scenography projects, solo and group exhibitions, as well as participations in festivals in Bulgaria, Europe, and the USA. He has received numerous awards for his work in the field of theater and contemporary art.
Venelin Shurelov's works combine theoretical research, various digital technologies, interactive performances and interactive installations, cybernetic lectures, theatrical practices, street actions, video art and video installations, sculpture, electronics, and drawing.
He signs this complex artistic activity under the name "SubHuman Theatre".
"SubHuman Theatre" manifests itself as a by-product of the social, political, economic and cultural situation. Within this conceptual framework, I explore the intermediate states of the human body, focusing on its marginalisation. It refers to decoding the language of contemporary myths and encoding them into new creations at the intersection between humans and technology.
* Marginal - peripheral, discarded, on the border. Marginal person - someone who is on the borderline of different social groups, systems, cultures, under the influence of conflicting norms and values. The term comes from the Latin marginalis and means a side text written in the margin of a book, accompanying the main text.