site.btaPlovdiv Welcomes New Academic Year and Old Town Festival with Gala Performance

The Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts “Prof. Asen Diamandiev” opened its new academic year at the Ancient Theatre in Plovdiv on Monday, launching the Old Town Festival with a joint performance by students and faculty. The festival runs until September 30 with 18 events across the city’s historic centre.

The featured performance, titled Threads in Time, was a collaborative production with the Municipal Institute “Ancient Plovdiv” and marked the official start of the festival’s calendar.

Welcoming the audience, Municipal Institute “Ancient Plovdiv” Director Elena Kantareva-Decheva described the Old Town Festival as an ongoing effort to make the historic district a vibrant intersection of the arts, combining the city’s rich cultural heritage with a dynamic artistic life. She invited attendees to explore this year’s diverse programme, thanked partners and donors, and wished the Academy a successful and inspired 62nd academic year.

Deputy Minister of Culture Georgi Sultanov, an alumnus of the Academy, noted that academic life is a time of challenge and new opportunities, where dreams meet knowledge and effort turns into achievement and art. He urged students to be bold, inquisitive, and open to the new, and thanked the Academy’s faculty for their dedication and support of the artistic community.

Sultanov also congratulated the Municipal Institute “Ancient Plovdiv” for their commitment to preserving Bulgaria’s cultural and historical heritage and for turning the Old Town’s monuments into living centres of learning and art.

Plovdiv Regional Governor Hristina Yancheva addressed first-year students, stating that their journey through knowledge and art would require not only talent, persistence, and discipline but also courage to discover new horizons. She commended the Academy’s teachers for their dedication and professionalism and highlighted the dual significance of launching the academic year alongside the Old Town Festival, calling both events a bridge between past and present that demonstrates the unifying and uplifting power of art.

The audience welcomed the Academy’s leadership to the stage to the sounds of the “Gaudeamus” hymn, introduced by Rector Zhan Pehlivanov. He reported that the Academy received top marks from the Ministry of Education and Science for its development policies and achievements in the 2024/2025 academic year. Pehlivanov congratulated first-year students on choosing one of Europe’s most prestigious academies, encouraging them to focus on study and self-improvement despite the challenges of university life, and thanked faculty, students and alumni for their lasting contributions to the institution.

After Pehlivanov’s address, NEAA Chair Eliza Stefanova officially presented the Academy with a six-year institutional accreditation certificate.

Awards for outstanding academic and research achievements were presented to faculty and staff members Metodiy Plachkov and Gina Kafedzhian. Brief greetings followed from the Academy’s Student Council and the National Representation of Student Councils.

First-year students and established performers alike took part in the gala. The concert featured the Academy Jazz Band with soloist Petar Salchev, the Academy Folk Choir led by Nikolay Gorbanov, and the Academy Folk Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Vladimirov. Ensembles “Intro” and “Elika & Friends,” all Academy alumni, performed alongside solo vocalists including opera tenor Ivaylo Mihaylov and singer Kerana, and percussion duo Agleya Kaneva and Alexander Vichev, pupils at the National School of Music and Dance Arts “Dobrin Petkov” – Plovdiv.

The ceremony concluded with all performers and the audience joining together to sing the beloved Bulgarian song “Oblache le byalo.”

In the 2024/25 academic year, 16,995 foreign students, including from EU Member States, enrolled in Bulgarian universities. The largest number of international students came from Greece (3,277), the United Kingdom (2,235), Ukraine (2,151), Germany (1,532) and Italy (990). A growing number of international students and doctoral candidates, including from Western Europe, are choosing to study in Bulgaria, with 779 additional enrolments in 2024/25 compared with the previous academic year. BTA has signed indefinite agreements for ongoing collaboration with 45 of Bulgaria's 51 universities to provide copyright-cleared materials and student internship opportunities.