Sofia Festival Orchestra

Martin Panteleev, Conductor - Terrance Wilson, Piano

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Mechanics Hall - 8:00 P. M. - Pre-concert Talk 7:00 P. M.

Overview

In 2005, at age 28, Martin Panteleev was given a distinguished award by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture for his musical accomplishments by naming him Chief Conductor of the Sofia Festival Orchestra. Since then the Orchestra, made up of Bulgaria’s leading musicians and former principals of Europe’s best known orchestras, has garnered critical reviews at home and abroad. An accomplished composer and violinist, Panteleev was born into a family of musicians, began violin studies at age four and went on to win top prizes including the Bela Bartok Prize in Sofia.

Terrance Williams has established a reputation as one of today’s gifted artists, having preformed with some of the country’s most prestigious orchestras including the National Symphony, San Francisco, Cleveland and Philadelphia among others, and at festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Program

  • Prokofiev - “Romeo & Juliet” excerpts
  • Grieg - Piano Concerto in A Minor
  • Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36

“The young Bulgarian conductor Martin Panteleev and the Sofia Festival Orchestra were the sensation. Conducting from memory, Panteleev conducted full of emotion and fire, and with such depth of feeling that the deeply moved public could not wait to hear the second half of the concert.”

– Mannheimer Morgenpost, Germany

“Pianist Terrence Wilson has a good technique, a big and shiny sound and an elegant, tasteful sense of phrase, one that likes to linger over resonating sonorities and explore silence but not at the expense of coherent melodic line.”

– The New York Times