site.bta85th Birth Anniversary of Noted Bulgarian Composer Alexander Yossifov

Tuesday marks the 85th birth anniversary of prominent Bulgarian composer, conductor and educator Alexander Yossifov.

Born in Sofia on August 12, 1940 to a musicians' family, she first tried his hand at composing in 1954. He graduated from Varna's State Music School in 1958 and was conscripted in the Navy.

Between 1962 and 1966, Yossifov studied at the Bulgarian State Conservatoire: composition with Pancho Vladigerov, conducting with Konstantin Iliev, and piano with Zheni Kovacheva.

He was appointed chief editor at the Balkanton gramophone records company in 1967 and worked as the company's director general from 1968 to 1986.

Yossifov's first major international honour came in 1968, when he was aged 28: a first prize for his Sinfonietta at the Seventh International Symphony Competition, organized by the Tartini Conservatoire and the Giuseppe Verdi Opera House in Trieste, Italy.

Also in 1968, he won first and second prize at the Golden Orpheus International Pop Song Festival, at which he chaired the international jury in the 1970s and 1980s.

Two of his songs were named Tunes of the Year in 1975 and 1977 in the TV competition of the same name. 

Yossifov served as deputy chair of the Committee for Radio and Television (1986-1989), deputy minister of education (1989-1990), deputy director of the Sofia National Opera (1991-1993), dean of the Vocal Faculty and deputy rector of the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music (2000-2008).

Teaching opera singing under a conductor as a professor at the Academy and at New Bulgarian University, he trained over 160 performers and opera singers. 

He was a founder of the Vienna Club Association with the Austrian Embassy in Sofia in 1995 and president of the Club from 1995 to 2016.

Yossifov wrote over 600 songs performed by stars like Lili Ivanova, Bogdana Karadocheva, Yordanka Hristova, Emil Dimitrov, Boris Gudzhunov, Vasil Naydenov, Orlin Goranov and Biser Kirov. He conducted more than 2,400 opera performances and over 56 productions.

His 1,500-plus works cut across the spectrum of musical genres, including six symphonies, ten instrumental concertos: five for piano and orchestra, three for violin and orchestra, and one each for cello and orchestra, for kaval and orchestra, and for flute and orchestra, as well as 52 opuses for piano duos. Yossifov's 28 operas and ballets enjoy particular popularity, with 100 premieres and over 2,000 performances in Bulgaria and abroad. A dozen or so of his operas are for children. He also takes credit for a number of film scores for feature films and documentaries and 300 arrangements of folk songs and dances.

Yossifov's works have been staged in Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Turkiye and elsewhere in Europe. They have been recorded for radio and TV programmes and released on CDs in all of these countries, plus Brazil, France, Switzerland, Portugal, Canada, Egypt, and the US.

He won 20 international prizes at composition competitions in Japan, Italy, Greece, Turkiye, Russia, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.

In 1999, Prof. Alexander Yossifov became the first foreigner to win the Kanebo Grand Prix at the Fifth International Contest for his Prelude and Fugue No. 2 for two piano duos. In 2002, he was awarded a Cross of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria and a Cross of Merit for Polish Culture. The highest Bulgarian honour, the Order of the Balkan Range, First Class, was conferred on him in 2005, followed by the Order of Sts Cyril and Methodius, First Class, in 2010.

Prof. Alexander Yossifov passed away in Sofia on November 25, 2016.