Milen Panayotov from the Bulgarian National Radio died after a short illness, the national radio reported.
He was the author and host of two iconic programs in the program “Hristo Botev” – “Spontaneous Inventions” and “Contempo”.
Milen Stefanov Panayotov is a composer and music journalist at the Bulgarian National Radio. He graduated from the Pancho Vladigerov State Music Academy with a composition in the class of Prof. Dimitar Tapkov. He later studied in the composition classes of György Kurtag, Julio Estrada, Peter-Michael Hamel, Alejandro Iglesias-Rossi, Paul-Heinz Dietrich. From December 2006 to February 2007 he specialized in composition with Prof. Mark Kopitman at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
Since 1995, Milen Panayotov has been working in the Hristo Botev program of the Bulgarian National Radio, where he hosts programs mainly for jazz and improvised music (“Spontaneous Inventions”, “Spontaneous and After Midnight”), but also makes review programs about musical life. “Metronome”), portraits of musicians (“Bulgarian performers”), one-hour performances of operas (“Pocket format”), and until the fall of 2000 he was in the team of the show for contemporary and early music “Counterpoint”.
From 2000 to 2011 he was a member of the organizing team of the international festival of contemporary piano music ppIANISSIMO.
Since 2004 he has been collaborating with the Russian jazz portal Jazz.Ru and its electronic publication Polny Jazz, which covers the international jazz festivals Varna Summer, Jazz +, the Skopje Jazz Festival, and also publishes interviews with major contemporary jazz musicians such as Bojan Zulfikarpashic, Julien Luro, Dave Holland, Paolo Frezu. He also published criticisms and reviews in the newspaper “Kultura”.
As a delegate of the Bulgarian National Radio, Milen Panayotov took part in the work of the International Tribune of Composers under the auspices of UNESCO (Paris 2002, Vienna 2005); in the meetings of different groups of Euroradio: at Euroclassic Nocturne (Warsaw 2004; Sofia 2008; Istanbul 2011); of jazz producers (Cologne, 2008, Bucharest 2009), as well as in the sessions of the International Radio and Television University (URTI) in French Radio (Paris, 2008).
Three of Milen Panayotov’s works were presented at the International Tribune of the Composer of the International Music Council at UNESCO: “Da re diesis al mi bemolle” for two pianos (1996) “No Keys” for piano (without playing the keys, 2003) ); and “Musica per archi senza percussione e celesta” (2007).
At the 13th Festival of Modern Art “Two Days and Two Nights New Music”, in April 2007 in Odessa, Ukraine, Milen Panayotov and the artist Mariangela Anastasova presented their multimedia project “Signs and Sounds”.
On April 24, 2007 in the Bulgaria Hall, the Sofia Soloists under the direction of Plamen Djurov performed the world premiere of “Musica per archi senza percussione e celesta”. In May of the same year the play was recorded for the Bulgarian National Radio by the same performers. Among the performers of the work are also the Azerbaijan Chamber Orchestra, dir. Vladimir Runchak (December 4, 2010 Baku) and the Gubaidulina Orchestra for Contemporary Music, dir. Benjamin Yusupov (October 21, 2011, Kazan).
On November 3, 2011 is the world premiere of “Gaishuvir (the orchestra as a bagpipe)” performed by the Sofia Philharmonic, under the baton of Martin Panteleev.
For his work as a journalist and composer Milen Panayotov received awards and scholarships:
“Eighth Muse” for the show “In pocket format: the opera” Marco Polo “by Tan Dun” (2003);
“Golden Umbrella” for the show “Pocket format: the opera” Hansel and Gretel “by Engelbert Humperdinck” (13th International Media Events, Albena, 2006)
Scholarship of the Brandenburg Academy of Music (Brandenburg Colloquium for New Music, Rheinsberg, 1995)
Scholarship from the Soros Center for the Arts and the Darmstadt New Music Courses (Darmstadt, 1998)
Grant from the Valparaiso Foundation for a one-month residency (Mohakar, 2011).
A tribute to his bright memory!
