It is been quite awhile since my last update and a lot
has happened since. So, here is a summary of the news around me from the last 6
months...
In May of 2012 I successfully
completed my Doctoral studies at California Institute of the Art and received the
degree of Doctor of Musical Arts as a Performer-Composer. The three busy and eventful
years in school culminated with my dissertation, a book of concert etudes, and improvisational and
finger dexterity exercises intended for the contemporary professional pianist and
entitled "Modes & Meters". This book
summarizes the essence of my improvisational and compositional piano techniques
and was premiered at the Roy O. Disney Hall at CalArts by myself and my colleagues
and wonderful pianists Lisa Maresh and Neema Pazargad.
For
those of you who live in Southern California, you will have the chance to see a
live performance of "Modes & Meters" on Saturday, November 17th
at Chapman University in Orange, CA and on Saturday, February 23rd at California
State University, Northridge. I will be joined by Neema Pazargad at these performances
and for more information, you can visit the links at the bottom of this email.
We are also planning a recording of the entire book in late
December and a video recording of "Gorgon" and "Montis" for 2 pianos in January. Both the
album and the videos will be released in the early spring of 2013.
This summer I finally had the chance to release a few remixed
and remastered classic recordings that I had done about 10 years ago. Among them
are "Luta Rakia" and "Yash Bob/Eat Beans" featuring the great Miroslav Tadic on guitar, as well as my "Bulgarian Suite No.1" for solo piano and
another version of "Luta Rakia" by one of my projects Bulgarian
Moonshine Co. Below is a video of "Fugue" from "Bulgarian Suite No.1".
If you would like to download any of these tracks, just click on the track's title
and it will take you to iTunes. All of these recordings are also available on Amazon
and CD Baby.
Sometime
ago the pianist Danny Holt commissioned me to write a piece for his
unique piano and percussion setup for one performer. "Aegri Somnia" is
the result of this commission and Danny will premiere it tonight at the Wild Beast
at CalArts and tomorrow afternoon at Art Share-LA. It is an exciting and demanding
piece featuring rich ornamentation resembling the epic traditional songs of Bulgaria
and based on the asymmetrical 7/8 metric pattern of the Bulgarian dance Rachenitsa.
In October, a very unique and
wonderful album entitled "Orenda" by БALKANSKY was released by the Bulgarian label
Kuker Music. I had the pleasure of contributing to the album by recording
piano on the beautiful traditional Bulgarian song "Tudora" also featuring the legendary voice
of Yanka Rupkina,“the kaval-player
of the Universe” Theodosii Spassov, the programming and sounds of Ivan Shopov, and the visionary producing of Ivo Christov. Check out the amazing visuals of the official
album teaser: http://youtu.be/XKTxSjoPL0A
Thank you for being a part of my musical journey. Love and
peace.
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