Evdokia Bobotsova, mandolin
Rosen Idealov, clarinet
Milen Dzhurov, guitar
Rossen Balkanski, guitar
Margarita Kalcheva, double bass
The quintet SEASONS was founded in 1996 as a mandolin quartet.
The ensemble has participated in many national and international festivals of classical and contemporary music such as “Apolonia”, “Sofia Music Weeks”, “Music Tuesdays in Biad”, International Classical Guitar Competition “Acad. Marin Goleminov “, Balkan Guitar Festival”, “Sofia Summer”, International Festivals of Plectro Music in La Rioja – Spain, La Coruna – Spain, Great Britain, France and others.
SEASONS have released four CDs, reviewed and highly recognized by the journals of the Classical Mandolin Society of America as well as the French specialized on-line magazine “Le Plectre”.
Evdokia Bobotsova – mandolin
Evdokia was one of the founders of the “Seasons” mandolin quartet.
She studied mandolin with Lyubomir Kalchev and Asen Dimitrov – the founders and conductors of the first mandolin orchestras in Bulgaria; Evdokia has many years of practice in chamber formations and orchestras. She was the concert master of “Sofia” Mandolin Orchestra and was invited as a soloist of the Symphony orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio for “The Godfather” film project.
Evdokia leads mandolin workshops at national and international mandolin forums.
Rosen Idealov – clarinet
Dr. Rosen Idealov is a graduate of the Varna Music School National Academy of Music “Prof. P. Vladigerov” – Sofia,
Since 2006, Rosen Idealov has been an assistant in the Department of Chamber Music and Accompaniment at the National Academy of Music “Prof. P. Vladigerov” and a teacher of chamber music, clarinet and orchestral playing at National School of Music “L. Pipkov”, Sofia since 1999.
In April 2021, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Department of Chamber Music and Accompaniment at the National Academy of Music, Sofia.
He is a winner of the Seventh All-Bulgarian Competition for Singers and Instrumentalists (1984) in the clarinet and chamber music specialties.
In 1999, at the international competitions “Music and the Earth” and “Young Virtuosos”, Sofia, he was awarded a prize for pedagogical achievements.
In 2005, he received the award of the SBC “Golden Five Line” for high artistic achievements and contribution to the spread of Bulgarian music.
He is a two-time winner of the “Golden Lira” National award – in 2009 and 2019 for excellence in performing arts and high pedagogical achievements.
In 2012, for the CD “Dialogues” and the concert-promotion, he received the “Crystal Lyre” award of SMTDB in the Chamber Music category together with the cellist Georgita Boyadzhieva.
Rosen Idealov has been actively performing concerts for more than 40 years as a soloist and chamber artist in Bulgaria and abroad – Italy, USA, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, China, Korea, Romania, North Macedonia, etc. His repertoire includes over 650 works from the Renaissance to the present day.
He was a soloist of the best Bulgarian symphony, chamber and wind orchestras.
He has participated on the stage of the most prestigious international music forums and festivals – Wien Modern, Triest Prima, “Varna Summer”, “Sofia Music Weeks”; “March Music Days”, “Art Salon”;” Apollonia”, “Musica Nova, Sound and Connection” – Sofia and others.
He is extremely sought after as a performer of contemporary music. Over 250 musical works were written for him by prominent Bulgarian composers of different generations. He was a soloist of most symphonic, chamber and wind orchestras in Bulgaria – Sofia Philharmonic, Simphoni Orchester of BNR, chamber orchestra” Sofia Soloists” and many others.
Rossen Balkanski – guitar
Prof. Dr. Rosen Balkanski is a prominent Bulgarian guitarist, composer and teacher. Professor of classical guitar at the National Academy of Music “Prof. P. Vladigerov”, Head of the “Strings” department at the National Academy of Music “Prof. P. Vladigerov”, a member of the Union of Composers and a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Guitarists in Bulgaria.
He was born in 1968 in Sofia. He started playing the guitar at the age of 11 with the doyens of the Bulgarian guitar music Dimitar Doichinov and Stefan Vladimirov. He has graduated from National Music School “Lyubomir Pipkov” and National Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia majoring in classical guitar, immediately after which he was invited to the Instrumental Faculty as the only teacher of classical guitar.
Rosen Balkanski is the recipient of national and international awards for performance and composition, laureate of all national guitar competitions. He is the first Bulgarian guitarist laureate of an international award in Kutna Hora, Czechoslovakia, 1982.
Prof. Dr. Rosen Balkanski is known for his works for guitar, chamber ensembles, film and theater music. Winner of a prize for composition in a competition of the Academy of Music and Dance Art in Plovdiv, published in the French magazine “Cahier de la guitare” in 1996. Rosen Balkanski’s works are published by many European publishing houses: BIM – Switzerland, Daminus – Germany, Haus der Musik Trekel OHG – Germany, “BalkaNota”, “Dobrev” – Bulgaria, etc.
His works for guitar are performed in Europe and America by leading classical guitarists such as Gerhard Reichenbach, Andreas von Wangenheim, Dmitry Ilarionov, Atanas Urkuzunov, etc.
His chamber compositions are performed by distinguished musicians such as Yosif Radionov, Angel Stankov, mandolin quintet “Seasons”, guitar duo Valchevi, quartet “Colors” (Germany), guitar trio “Triada” (USA) and others.
Rosen Balkanski is one of the few Bulgarian composers of mandolin music with international recognition. His works were commissioned by the mandolin orchestras Landeszupforchester Thüringen – Germany, Landeszupforchester Nord for Eurofestival Zupfmusic in Bruchsal – Germany, Visani festival – Greece, etc.
Premieres of his works take place in Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, Germany, Greece, Japan, China.
Rosen Balkanski has an active concert activity as a soloist, participates in various chamber ensembles, performs with the Sofia Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the BNR, the Sliven Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He leads numerous classical guitar master classes in the country and abroad, judges in prestigious classical music competitions.
Milen Dzhurov – guitar
He is a doctoral student in classical guitar at the National Academy of Music “Prof. P. Vladigerov”.
Milen Dzhurov started playing the guitar at seventeen under the guidance of Banko Bankov, with whom he studied Latin and jazz along with classical music.
He continued his studies with Rosen Balkanski and in 2014 received a bachelor’s degree in classical guitar. He devoted several years to work with Latin and Sephardic music. In parallel, since 2010 he has been working with students in different schools. In 2018, he graduated with a master’s degree under Rosen Balkanski. There are master classes with Pablo Marquez, Georgi Vasilev, Gerhard Reichenbach, Gabriel Bianco and others. He performs with various ensembles.
Margarita Kalcheva – double bass
She was born in Pleven, graduated from the School of Music “P. Pipkov”, Pleven – Bulgaria under Irina Petrova, and later graduated from National Academy of Music “Prof. P. Vladigerov” in the double bass class of Prof. Todor Toshev.
Margarit aKalcheva has specialized in chamber music with prof. Victor Chuchkov. Participated in a master class of Michel Veillon – Switzerland. Laureate of the National Competition “St. Obretenov”, has awards from participation in the international competitions “V. Buki” Italy and Enschede, Netherlands.
Since 1995 she is an orchestra player in the Symphony orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, and since 1998 is a leader of the double bass group in the same orchestra. In the meantime, she performed in numerous orchestras at home and abroad – Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Malta. In the period 2009-2018, he combined his position as leader in the double bass group in the orchestra of Kanazawa, Japan, 2018-2022 in the orchestra of Monaco, as well as solo-bassist of Camerata Orfika – New Bulgarian Unoversity, Sofia.
In several consecutive years he has been part of the teaching team of the International Summer Academy – Sozopol, and during the period 2018-2020 – a double bass teacher at New Bulgarian Unoversity, Sofia.
As a soloist, her repertoire includes works by Bottesini, Dietersdorf, Koussevitzky, Tchaikovsky, Goleminov, Tabakov. She has performed as a soloist in most orchestras in Bulgaria, as well as in Japan, Korea, and Serbia. There are several premieres of her as a double bass player in our country – Tchaikovsky – “Rococo Variations”, M. Goleminov – Concerto for Double Bass, Ennio Morricone – “Breavissimo”, D. Hristov – “Yellow-Green”.
As a soloist and chamber performer, she has made numerous recordings of classical and contemporary music for Bulgarian National Radio and Bulgarian National Television.