site.btaBTA to Partner with Allegra Festival, Academy

BTA Thursday signed a partnership agreement with the Allegra Foundation, which organizes the international Allegra festival and academy. The agreement marks "a new stage of systematic cooperation aimed at expanding coverage of the foundation’s events within BTA’s news services" to use the words of BTA Director General Kiril Valchev. He noted that this is one more agreement in a series of BTA agreements for regular publications from various festivals and organizations in the field of music with regulated copyright.

BTA already partners with over 25 festivals, all state operas, the Sofia Philharmonic, and associations in the field of music such as the Union of Bulgarian Composers and Musicautor. In the area of music education, partnerships include the National Music Academy, the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, and the National Music School in Sofia.

"Starting a project, a person first wants to express themselves through it. One has a vision and sets out on a path, along which one very much hopes to meet supporters and like-minded people. And this act, which we are witnessing today, for me is a great recognition. Listening to all the institutions you listed, placing us alongside them, I feel close to a new partner who inspires confidence in what we have now created and who gives me courage for what we are about to do," said the founder and artistic director of the festival, Petar Naydenov.

The administrative director of the Allegra Foundation, Maria Naydenova-Abrasheva, recalled that since 2023 the Embassy of Switzerland has been the patron of the festival. "What the Sofia audience sees is the ceremonial, festival part, the concerts, behind which stands a huge academy. Since 2022 the festival has been held in Sofia. More than 100 young musicians from all over the world come to Sofia for about 10 days to work with some of the most prominent teachers on the European scene. The teachers who work with the students during the day are soloists in the concert programme in the evening. Last year, for the first time, we held a winter edition, which was extremely successful,” she added.