The orchestra conductor will be Alexei Kornienko from Austria – the new main conductor of the orchestra. The maestro, who is also a pianist, will also perform as a soloist in the orchestra. So will the other new conductor of the orchestra – Martin Pantaleev – violinist and composer.

The conductor team also includes Dian Chobanov and Liuba Pesheva, leader of the National philharmonic choir “Svetoslav Obretenov” and the “Sofia Quartet”.

The main directions in the repertoire of the philharmonic during the season will be three, according to the orchestra leader Yavor Dimitrov.

“Europolis” receives a “Golden rhyton” for it’s complete presentation of the fate of a city and a book throughout the 20th century and beyond. “Three sisters and Andrey” – for it’s originality and inspirational presentation of the loneliness of the elderly and the murderous everyday routine.”

These are the motives of the jury – Georgi Stoev-Jeki, Emilia Arabadjieva, Liubomir Iotov, Mitko Novkov and Georgi Balabanov.

The special award of the jury chairman was given to Mariana Valkanova – “for the spectacular and colorful sound design in the Bulgarian documentary cinema.”

Honorary diplomas went out to the documentaries “Two or three things we know about her…” by Liuba Kulezic and “Three men by the water” by Ralitsa Dimitrova, and the animations “The Line” by Andrey Kulev and “The Lighthouse” by Velislava Gospodinova.

The Bulgarian branch is part of the International fashion academy. The chairwoman of the National fashion chamber Nadya Valeva announced that Galiana Arsova will be the president of the Academy.

She noted that the new institution is part of the National fashion chamber, and actually represents a broadened Management council of the chamber. It includes representatives of the fashion business from 28 regions. The Management council consists of three representatives – one from Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna.

The local managers of the academy will handpick the members of the academy, who in turn will have rights to choose the nominations in various categories.

The members will be eight, with each representing a different style in fashion – a fashion house or a designer, a top model with experience abroad, a fashion photographer, a stylist, a representative of the accessory fashion, a make up artist, a media representative and a musician.

The national forum will present 90 movies from the last two years. 47 of them are in a competition between each other.

Some of the movies will be shown for the first time in the culture center “Trakart”. Radio Plovdiv announced that the entrance is free of charge.

The festival begins tonight in “Novotel Plovdiv” with two screenings. The first is the animation “Anna Blume”, based on the dadaist poem of Schwitters from 1919, and the documentary “Goleshevo”.

The performance of the Californian singer was right on time. A little after 20:00 h. the lights in the hall went off, Macy’s band went on stage and finally, the RnB star came out followed by an outburst of applause. The singer was dressed in a loose red dress, fitting her infamous “messy” hair.

The show was opened with the song from her latest album, “Ghetto Love”. Her back vocalists immediately attracted the attention of the crowd with their playful stage presence. The song was followed by other popular tracks of the singer like “Psychopath”, “When I See You”, Caligula”, with the emblematic “Glad РЈou’re Here”, was a special dedication to the Bulgarian fans.

One long set later, the evening ended on a high note – the singer leaves the stage with the final notes of “Everybody”, followed by her band. The biggest fans of Macy Gray were awarded with a night in the club “Yalta”, where the singer was DJing on her own.

The first short film intended for the comeback is based on the concert of Madonna in Sofia – the most significant music event of 2009. “bTV Reporters” follows the details around the preparations for the concert, the expectations, the spectacle itself and the reactions of the pop icon’s biggest fans in Bulgaria.

Viewers will enjoy the backstage footage from the unique show. The team of bTV will also show footage from the rehearsal room of Madonna and the rooms intended for her and the entire team during their stay in Bulgaria.

The film will be shown this Saturday at 19:30 h.

The two bands are visiting on the invitation of the new promotion company “Loud Concerts”, and the tickets for the two events will be on sale from September 1st. Tickets will be sold exclusively in the Ticketstream network, the Office 1 Superstore chain, M-Tel offices and M-Sviat.

The first two hundred tickets for the W.A.S.P. concert on November 17th will be sold at the promotional price of 30 leva. Any tickets after that will cost 35 leva, and on the day of the concert they will cost 45 leva.

The first two hundred tickets for the Stratovarius concert on 24.01.2010 will be sold at the promotional price of 25 leva. The remaining tickets will be sold for 30 leva, and on the day of the concert – for 35 leva.

W.A.S.P. arrive in Sofia a little over a month after the official release of their latest album Babylon. The official promotion of the album in the US and the UK will be on October 12th, and Bulgarian fans will be among the first to hear it live.

This was announced by the organizers from the foundation “Apolonia”. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the festival. To commemorate the event, organizers have prepared a high-quality schedule. It includes Bulgarian musicians, artists, writers and actors of international fame, as well as the best theatrical companies, orchestras and bands.

Talented foreign performers have also been invited. Over seventy cultural events will take place over the course of the festival.

The official opening will be at 20:30 in the Amphitheater “Apolonia”, with a concert by the Sofia philharmonic orchestra. The orchestra conductor is Grigor Palikarov, and the soloists – Gabriela Georgieva (soprano) and Ventsislav Anastasov (baritone). The schedule includes popular operas and orchestra overtures.

The tram line 9, the trolley lines 5 and 11, and the bus lines 76, 94, 280, 305 and 604 will function up until 1:00 h. on August 30th.

This was announced by the municipality administration earlier today.

The work shifts of the public transport in the Bulgarian capital have been extended to provide better transportation for the audiences of Madonna.

DJ DeeKline should be on everyone’s must-hear list. His performances are closely related to the most prestigious London clubs – Fabric and The End. He’s a regular guest of Radio 1 of BBC and XFM, performs gigs in Spain in front of 15 000 people, etc. Highlights in his career include the first place in the Australian dance chart with his single “4x4x4″ from the album “Breaks, Beats & Blondes”, first spot in the Radio 1 chart with a remix of the Armand Van Helden song “My, My, My”, first spot on the German club music chart with the remix of the Prodigy song “Out of Space”.

All these achievements grant him a well deserved recognition as one of the top five European DJs. He will be supported by MC Ivory. Artists from the drum’n'bass labels HMSU and METAFIZIQ will also face each other at the festival. The second evening will cater to fans of the psy-trance sound, with Atriohm from Skopje as a headliner. Some of the most prominent Bulgarian artists in the genre will also make an appearance.

The second stage is dedicated to DJs from the region, who will present their musical tastes to the audience. The festival is taking place within the nature park “Vrachanski Balkan”.