Rossen Balkanski


composer, pedagogue, guitarist

15.03.1968Sofia - Bulgaria

Rossen Balkansky studied Guitar under Alexander Pumpalov, Luben Panayotov, Panayot Panayotov, Banko Bankov and Georgi Mirchevsky. In 1995 he was admitted at the State Academy of Music in Sofia in the guitar class of Emil Saev. He worked as a teacher of guitar at a music school and as a teacher of classical guitar at the State Academy of Music. He had an intensive concert activity, giving solo concerts and concerts together with famous Bulgarian performers such as Professor Yossif Radionov or Professor Angel Stankov.

He wrote lots of works for guitar, some of which were performed in concert and at competitions in Bulgaria and all over Europe. He composed chamber music for ensembles with guitar and others, as well as arrangements of classical works for the guitar orchestra Orpheus, conducted by Stefan Dimitrov, of which he had been soloist from the very beginning. He composed songs based on Bulgarian traditional lyrics. From 1991 to 1995 he focused on arrangements and film and theatre music. He received his first award at the Young Guitarist Competition in 1990. In 1992 his Three Miniatures for guitar won him the second prize at the Second Academic Competition, organized by the Academy of Music and Dance Art in Plovdiv and the first prize as performer at the Third International Competition for Guitarists in Plovdiv. The Swiss publishers BIM (1992) published the work Song and Dance for brass sextet. Three Miniatures were published on the pages of the French magazine “Cahier de la guitare” (1997); his Guitar Sonata was published by the German publishers DAMINUS (the publishers are currently preparing a CD recording of the work). The same publishers are engaged with the release of the rest of his works.

Creativity

Choral instrumental:
The Day for male voices choir, strings, two guitars and brass sextet.

Chamber Music:
Chamber ensembles:

Scherzo for a guitar orchestra;
Song and Dance for brass sextet;
Concertino for guitar and string quartet;
Arioso for two mandolins and mandola;
Sonata for flute and guitar;
Two miniatures for tube and piano.

For solo guitar:

Three miniatures;
Three Bulgarian pieces;
Variations on the Bulgarian folksong Polegnala e Todora;
Scherzo,
Rondo capriccioso,
Prelude,
Sonata,
Nocturne,
Rachenitza.

Vocal music:

Mora – song cycle.

Theatre music:
Magic Reality (Theatre on a Table);
Wet Man (Youth Stage of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia);
I Always Travel Alone (Vazrazhdane Municipal Theatre – Sofia);
Solfeggio for Dogs (Chamber Hall of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia);
The Imaginary Prince (children’s performance, producer Astom Scoth-Lobo).

Film music:
Fetus Mortus (directed by Algafari).