The Balkanicus Ensemble with special guest Angel Dobrev, gadulka

The Balkanicus Ensemble with special guest Angel Dobrev, gadulka on Bridge Chamber Music Festival

Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 7:30 pm.

Tickets are $5 at the door.

Kracum Performance Hall
Carleton College
320 3rd St E
Northfield, MN 55057

After performing last year on the International Sofia Music Weeks festival in Bulgaria, Balkanicus Ensemble goes to Bridge Chamber Music Festival in Northfield, MN. The ensemble is happy to partner again with Angel Dobrev, gadulka. On the concert will be presented both Bulgarian contemporary chamber and folk music, with cameo of Rada Kolarova.

The Bridge Chamber Music Festival in Northfield, MN brings world class musicians to a small town setting. With a variety of classical and jazz ensembles the festival endeavors to thrill audiences with the power and emotion of an intimate performance environment featuring top tier musicians.

Bulgarian born cellist Nickolai Kolarov is the founder of the Balkanicus series in 2003 in the Twin Cities, MN. The series has featured music written especially for him. He is the President of the Balkanicus Institute for Balkan Art, Culture and History, a non-for-profit organization that promote the cultures from the Balkans and the Artistic Director of Balkanicus Ensemble. Dr. Kolarov performs actively both classical and contemporary repertoire throughout the country and appears as a soloist with orchestras from the Midwest. The Bulgarian National Radio and TV, as well as various radio and TV stations in Minnesota and Kansas featured some of his performances. Nickolai Kolarov has taught cello at the University of St. Thomas and has delivered lectures and master classes in several universities and colleges. In 2011 he was invited for a performance-lecture in the Juilliard School. Kolarov holds DMA from the University of Minnesota and he studied with Igor Gavrish from the Moscow Conservatory of Music.

Pianist Jill Dawe plays a wide range of chamber music, solo, and concerto repertoire and has a particular affinity for new music and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her recent performances include concerto engagements with the Minnesota Philharmonic, Heartland Symphony and St. Paul Jewish Community Orchestra; solo recitals at the Chautauqua Institution, and Piano By Nature Series. Dr. Dawe is a native of Newfoundland, Canada and a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. She is currently an associate professor of music at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, and she has also taught on the faculties of Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina; Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio; Chautauqua Institution, New York. Jill Dawe has been the pianist performer in Balkanicus Ensemble since 2010.

Clarinetist Patrick O’Keefe has been performing the clarinet in Balkanicus ensemble since the first Balkanicus concert in 2003. Pat is active in a variety of musical genres. He has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras, wailed away for belly dancers, and rocked samba in the streets. He is the woodwind player for the ensemble Zeitgeist, and also performs with Batucada do Norte, Choro Borealis, No Territories, Balkanicus, and The Maithree Ensemble. O’Keefe holds a BM from Indiana University, an MM from New England Conservatory, and a DMA from the University of California, San Diego. In 2015 he was awarded a Performing Musician Fellowship from the McKnight Foundation. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls.

Native from Costa Rica Fernando Meza is Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota School of Music, where he has been Director of Percussion Studies since 1993. Over this time period, he has built and established in Minneapolis what is considered by many to be one of the most comprehensive centers of percussion studies in the United States. Meza has also performed as soloist, chamber, or orchestral musician in such places as Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and the Musikverein in Vienna among others, and is in demand locally as a performer with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Bakken Trio and others. Meza has been performing on the Balkanicus concerts since 2010.

Angel Dobrev was born in the town of Omurtag in Bulgaria. He plays the gudulka (Bulgarian: гъдулка), which is a traditional Bulgarian bowed stringed instrument. He expressed an interest in Bulgarian folk music from an early age, and started taking private gudulka lessons at age 8. His interest and love for Bulgarian folk music deepened even more and led him to pursue a musical education. Angel graduated from of the famous Folk-Art Music School “Philip Kutev” in Kotel, and later earned his Masters Degree specializing in gudulka and folk ensemble conducting from the Academy for Music and Dance Arts in Plovdiv. Angel was a soloist and performer with the of the Academy Folk Orchestra during his studies. He also earned first place at a gudulka playing competition. Angel has performed with ensembles and groups at various international folk Festivals in Greece, Italy, Moldova, Macedonia, Turkey, and at the International Folk Festival in Branson, MO.

Since 2001 Angel has lived in Chicago, where he is very happy to help keep the heritage of Bulgarian folk music alive. In the United States, he plays at various Bulgarian cultural events, Bulgarian schools, Balkan music festivals, restaurants, and private events. He performs with the “Balkanski Ritmi” band, and participates annually in the Chicago Spring Festival organized by Balkanski Igri. There he performs and also teaches gudulka to people who are interested in and enthusiastic about learning to play this distinctive stringed instrument.