Balabanov’s House: a Timeless Symbol

The Balabanov’s House Music Days International Festival in Plovdiv, proud winner of the Music Project of the Year Award in the prestigious Musician of the Year Contest of the Bulgarian National Radio and the Plovdiv Music Award, laureate of the Gold Medal commemorating the centenary of the birth of the famous Bulgarian opera singer Boris Christoff, has earned a deserved reputation as one of the elitist cultural events in Bulgaria of an eminence that is not just European but global. It is two times   proud recipient of another important distinction, the European 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 Festival Label, conferred by the new Europe for the Festivals and the Festivals for Europe platform of the European Festival Association, which ranks the Balabanov’s House Music Days with the internationally established festivals of Avignon, Edinburgh, etc. In the autumn of 2015 the authoritative Fanco-German TV channel ARTE shot a film about Plovdiv, the city chosen as the 2019 European Capital of Culture, which highlighted the Balabanov’s House Music Days festival as one of its central events.

Since its inauguration in 2010, the programme of the Festival has featured many distinguished musicians and groups with brilliant careers. A priority of the Balabanov’s House Music Days that has grown into a mission is to offer young talents the rare privilege of sharing the same podium with celebrated artists. They are also given the opportunity of enhancing their qualification on the spot by attending master classes conducted by outstanding performers and teachers.

The Balabanov’s House Music Days International Festival is closely associated with a symbol – that of the country’s National Revival with its rich heritage of architectural aesthetics, spiritual predilections and noble strivings for a thorough integration into the European world. Balabanov’s House is an image of the ideal Bulgarian home as we would like to see it – with a distinct character of its own, exuding human warmth and mutuality.

The music festivities have widened the space of the House, imbuing it with new vibrant life. They have made the people think of it as a unique artistic centre. And although the quick growth of the forum has led to the inclusion of new Plovdiv landmarks – the Ancient Roman Stadium, the Roman Theatre, the Small Basilica, the Hindliyan House, the Ethnographical Museum, the Old Bath, the City House of Culture “Boris Christov” etc. – as venues of its numerous events, Balabanov’s House retains its centrality as the emblem of the Festival. The distinctive quality of the Music Days has placed it once and for all on the cultural map of the world as Bulgaria in miniature.

President of Honour: Dimitar Manev

Artistic Director: Mila Pavlova

Program Policy: Prof Dr. Yasen Teodossiev

Coordinator: Anton Paskov

Public Relations: Irena Doncheva and Violeta Filchovska