/ world today news/ Ognyan Stamboliev talks with our distinguished musician on the occasion of his 60th anniversary
DEAR PROFESSOR KUYUMDJIEV, THIS YEAR IS YOUR ANNIVERSARY. A REASON TO LOOK BACK, FOR BALANCE, BUT ALSO TOWARDS THE FUTURE. LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING – WITH YOUR GENDER, HOME AND CHILDHOOD. WITH THE FIRST MEETING WITH MUSIC…
There are no professional musicians in my family, but my mother played the violin and it was she who turned me on to this instrument. So I started as a 5-year-old in the children’s school at the then Secondary Music School in my hometown Burgas, and in 1973 I joined the school as a regular student (at that time, music schools had only a high school course).
AFTER THE MUSIC HIGH SCHOOL, YOU TURNED NOT TO THE INSTRUMENT, BUT TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF MUSIC. WHY?
My music history teacher, Biserka Gramatikova, directed me to musicology – an exceptional person, dedicated to the teaching profession and a very thorough researcher. I am very grateful to her! She prepared me – for free! – and for the main entrance exam at the then Bulgarian State Conservatory – a written topic on the history of music, and the synopsis covered all the material of the five academic years. For me, she remains an example of professional honesty and nobility, selflessness and benevolence to this day. May she be alive and healthy for many more years!
AFTER GRADUATION YOU STARTED TEACHING IN PLOVDIV, STARA ZAGORA, SOFIA… DO YOU LIKE TEACHING?
I have been teaching for 34 years. Working with young people – pupils or students – is also creative, at least I take it that way, it stimulates me, especially when I see a more special interest, a desire to learn something additional. I love this job, it gives me a lot – I am enriched by contact with young people.
YOUR FIRST SERIOUS MUSICOLOGY WORKS AND PUBLICATIONS WERE ON OLD BULGARIAN CHURCH MUSIC.
Yes, my first scientific articles were devoted to Bulgarian church music. Later, I became a doctoral student at the then Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and defended a thesis on polyphonic Bulgarian church music after the Liberation until the 1930s. Thus, this music became one of the main directions in my research activity.
WHICH OF YOUR WORKS DO YOU APPRECIATE THE HIGHEST AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO MORE?
It’s hard to say, but my monograph “The polyphonic liturgy in Bulgarian music (1878 – 1930s)” is my most cited work, I’m glad that as much as I could, I laid the foundation of filling one of the white fields until then in the history of Bulgarian music. I am currently working with my wife on a new edition of our German-Bulgarian music dictionary, which was published back in 2000 and has long been out of print.
IN PLOVDIV, YOUR DESTINY MEETS INTERESTING PERSONALITIES: DOBRIN PETKOV, ASEN DIAMANDIEV, IVAN SPASOV. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ABOUT THESE PEOPLE AND ENCOUNTERS?
I was truly fortunate to be in contact with these great names in our music culture. Of course, I did not miss a concert with Dobrin Petkov and the Plovdiv Philharmonic. I still clearly remember his last opera premiere in Plovdiv – “Otello” by Verdi, a performance at an extremely high, European level. But I had personal meetings with Dobrin Petkov even as a student on the occasion of my graduation thesis, dedicated to the orchestral work of Konstantin Iliev. He performed a performance of his Third Symphony in Plovdiv (maybe it was the second performance of it ever) and gave me the original author’s score to work with. Then I met with Konstantin Iliev himself. Meetings with both of them became possible thanks to my aunt Katya Valeva – a longtime accompanist at the Sofia Opera – she was close to both of them, especially Dobrin Petkov.
Dobrin Petkov, in addition to being a conductor of European stature, raised the Plovdiv Philharmonic to a very high level – all concerts with him were events that had a special atmosphere. I am happy that as the director of the Secondary School of Music in Plovdiv (today the National School of Music and Dance), I was able to realize my idea that it should adopt his name, which it carries with honor and responsibility to this day.
My meetings with Asen Diamandiev were mostly related to the book that my wife and I had to prepare for his 85th anniversary in 2000. He was an incredibly modest and benevolent person, with a huge contribution to the musical culture of Plovdiv – and to the Singing Society , and for the School of Music, and especially for today’s Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Art, which he created more than half a century ago. It is not by chance that it recently bears his name. He was always open to new things, searching and at the same time always ready to help the younger ones.
AT YOUR ORDER, IVAN SPASOV, ONE OF THE GREAT, I WOULD SAY, “MODERN BULGARIAN COMPOSERS”, CREATED ONE OF HIS TOP OPUSES, “MISERERE”. WHERE DID THIS INTERESTING IDEA COME FROM?
In connection with the 50th anniversary of the “Dobrin Petkov” Secondary Music School in Plovdiv in 1995, as its director, I approached Ivan Spasov with a proposal to write a work on this occasion. Then he composed 24 bagatelles for piano, which he dedicated to the young pianists at the school, and “Miserere” for soloists, ladies’ choir and chamber orchestra. During those years, the school had an extremely strong chamber orchestra, whose members today work in many countries around the world. It is true that “Miserere” does not have a festive character corresponding to the occasion, but it is one of the brightest vocal-instrumental works of Ivan Spasov, and the fact that he wrote it for the school speaks of the level of the chamber orchestra. It was premiered together with the chamber chapel “Polyphony” with conductor Ivelin Dimitrov at the “Winter Musical Evenings” in Pazardzhik in January 1996, and shortly after “Miserere” was performed again in the NDK and broadcast directly on BNT. In addition, as director of the Music School, I also had business meetings with Ivan Spasov – at the same time he was rector of the Academy.
YOU DID A BOOK ABOUT LAZAR NIKOlov, THIS GREAT MUSICIAN AND I WOULD SAY “INNER DISSIDENT”. WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS PERSONALITY?
Lazar Nikolov, apart from being a bourgeois like me, was very close to my uncle Todor Kuyumdzhiev and my aunt Katya Valeva. That’s how I became close to him and I have often been to his home at 4 Bacho Kiro St. in Sofia. The interest in his music arose in my school years – I clearly remember, for example, the premiere of his Second Symphony in 1979 in Burgas, performed by the Burgas Philharmonic with conductor Yordan Dafov. This is an exceptional person in Bulgarian music and in Bulgarian culture in general, a person who did not bend to the political pressure and the conjuncture and did not write a single work related to the ideology of the time. I am happy that I managed to make three publications related to him – the monograph of Konstantin Iliev, which saw the light of day in 2002 – 20 years after it was written, the letters between Konstantin Iliev and Lazar Nikolov in 2005 and a book with part from the archive of Lazar Nikolov, which was provided to me by his wife, in 2017. The publication of the archives, of the sources all over the world, is a very important activity, because history can only be written on the basis of the documents. And these documents are especially valuable because they contain truths that have been kept silent for a long time.
THE UNION OF MUSIC WORKERS, THE OLDEST CREATIVE ASSOCIATION IN BULGARIA, ATTRACTED YOU AS A COLLABORATOR. YOU BECAME THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF “MUSIC HORIZONTI” MAGAZINE AND YOU WERE ALSO DEPUTY CHAIRMAN. YOU WORKED ON THE GOVERNMENT AND ON THE UNION OF COMPOSERS. SURE THIS JOB ATTRACTS YOU?
For public work, one should have sense and not seek benefits. I am attracted by the fact that, in these difficult times for our musical culture, I could contribute to developing Bulgarian traditions, to expanding interest in Bulgarian musical creativity, to preserving the memory of great personalities in Bulgarian musical culture. This is also the mission of the magazine, of which I have been the editor-in-chief for more than 20 years.
IN BRIEF: WHAT IS THE CRISIS IN BG CULTURE AND IN BULGARIAN MUSICAL LIFE? IS THE REASON JUST IN THE REFORMS OR IN THE MUSICIANS THEMSELVES?
I think that the reform in the state music institutions, imposed from above according to unclear criteria, has long been compromised. And here it is not only about funding, but about depriving the ensembles of the possibility of an independent repertoire policy (the exceptions are those in Sofia), which would form both an audience and an attitude towards this music. This leads to a struggle for survival. Of course, there are funds, every day they are given out for whatever. But what is more worrying is that there is a lack of state policy in the field of culture, a lack of understanding that it is one of the few things that represent us in a dignified way around the world. And that’s why everything is done “piecemeal”, without an overall view of its development.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO GET OUT OF THIS CRITICAL SITUATION? FOR EXAMPLE, TO STOP THE LEAKAGE OF YOUNG MUSICIANS FROM BULGARIA?
To have decent pay. This, of course, affects other areas as well. So musicians, like doctors or scientists in various fields, will continue to seek fulfillment in other countries. There should also be a change in the attitude towards the subject of music in the Bulgarian school, to make sense of its very important importance for the formation of young people. For building their taste and attitude towards valuable music. Until a few decades ago, most schools had a choir, a student brass band. Now, school musicals are in history, unlike in most countries of the European Union, and not only there.
ARE YOU ONE OF OUR FEW MUSICIANS WHO STAND STRONGLY FOR YOUR CIVIL POSITION? BECAUSE OF HER, THERE WAS A SCANDAL AROUND YOU SOON. DO YOU HOPE ONE DAY THAT SIMILAR THINGS WILL NOT HAPPEN IN BULGARIA?
One of the few things that cannot be bought is dignity. I have always stood my ground as a citizen, no matter what the cost – that’s just the way I am. One should value one’s freedom, not allow another to speak on one’s behalf. Politics should not enter the academic space in the form of misunderstood autonomy. When I was making the book with Lazar Nikolov’s archive, I really did not believe that Stalinist-type thinking could return these days. After all, some people never went away. But it is precisely individuals like Lazar Nikolov who have stood the test of time that give me hope.
BEL. AVT.
Two years ago, the Plovdiv Academy of Music, Dance and Visual Arts awarded GERB deputy Menda Stoyanova (elected in Plovdiv and head of the parliamentary budget committee) an honorary doctorate. Her merit was that she arranged the academy with BGN 1.1 million state funds for the repair of the academy building. Stoyanova did not give personal money, but to the taxpayers, and in reality they deserve the honorary title, not her. Because Prof. Kuyumdzhiev and his wife, Prof. Polina Kuyumdzhieva expressed their fundamental disagreement with this act of the rector Milcho Vasilev, they were… punished with a warning for disciplinary dismissal!
#Prof #Julian #Kuyumjiev #bought #dignity..
