THE IDEA

The music critic Ms. Julia Hristova founded the New Symphony Orchestra in 1991 as an alternative to the existing musical institutions financially supported and controlled by the state. During the years since it was founded the New Symphony Orchestra has produced a cultural model of its own and has created a Society of Friends, dedicated to the welfare of this cultural institution, which is unique in Bulgaria. Julia Hristova’s Concert House, opened in 1990, served as a basis on which the Orchestra was founded. This House had its own unique system of organizing and financing the orchestra and working with its young musicians. According to the words of its founder, Julia Hristova, “We worked not to survive but to create.”

THE MUSICIANS

From the very beginning the idea of the New Symphony Orchestra was to be both a school and an institution taking care of young, talented musicians who had no experience on the stages of concert halls, but who had the strong desire to work and perfect them-selves. Over eight hundred musicians of an average age between 18 and 27 have played for the Orchestra. Musician from the School of the New Symphony Orchestra are now members of the biggest Bulgarian orchestral institutions and opera houses, and of orchestras in the USA, Latin America, South Africa, Western and Central Europe. The leading principles in the work with the young musicians, most of whom are still students, is respect for one’s personal opinions, equal opportunities and flexibility in the system of work. According to Julia Hristova “The most important goal in our work is not the concert, but one’s love in the process of ‘making’ music”.