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Stefan Velkov Guitar Recital
2018-04-19

19 April 2018

Odeion

19:30

Bulgarian-born Stefan Velkov was introduced to music since earliest childhood. His official training in music theory, piano and guitar started at the age of seven.

Stefan received his first music degree as a guitar and light music performer from the Bulgarian State Conservatoire (later renamed to Bulgarian Academy of Music). At this stage (the late seventies of the 20th century) the guitar in Bulgaria was still regarded mostly as a light-music instrument. That is why it was included as a study subject only within the Light Music Department of the Conservatoire. The interest and the knowledge of the classical guitar was still at its infancy, but its popularity was growing fast. This made it necessary for the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture to make a historic decision: for the first time in Bulgarian music history, a decision was made to send a young Bulgarian guitarist to Germany to receive a proper music degree in classical guitar and to return to Bulgaria and introduce classical guitar as a subject at the Bulgarian Academy of Music.

After competing with all the most talented guitarists of the country, Stefan won the competition which enabled him to receive a master's degree in classical guitar from the Berliner Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler. He completed his studies in guitar, piano and composition with a special reward of the Hochshule as one of the five best students. During his studies he also won the competition for the best guitar composition.

During his studies abroad (1981 - 1988) Stefan met and had masterclasses with most of the best guitar professors and guitar maestros of our time: Maria-Livia Sao Marcos (Switzerland/ Brazil), Costas Cotsiolis (Greece), Dieter Kreidler (Germany) and Leo Brouwer (Cuba).

In 1986 he was appointed as the first classical guitar lecturer at the Bulgarian Academy of Music and chairperson of the guitar festivals and competitions. This was the time when his own active concert career began. Stefan's repertoire includes most of the great masterpieces ever written for this instrument, but he became more and more known for his own compositions for guitar which, according to critics, outshine the best known masterpieces created for classical guitar.

Stefan’s arrival in SA (1991), coincided with the search of the Free State Musicon for a qualified guitar lecturer in order to introduce the subject classical guitar as part of its music training programme. He was offered the position of senior guitar lecturer at the Musicon which he holds until present day. During this time he also taught at the University of the Free State (1992 - 1999).

Stefan has given concerts in Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, England and South Africa.

PROGRAMME

  • Velkov: Summer Dream
    From the golden heritage of the classical guitar:
    • Villa-Lobos: Prelude
  • Two Magnificent Arpeggios
    • Giuliani
    • Brower
  • Two Romantic Pieces:
    • Velkov: Serenade
    • Velkov: Adagio (The Magic Of Love)
  • Velkov: Bulgarian Suite for Guitar
    • I Bulgarian folk dance
    • II Bulgarian folk-singing
    • III Bulgarian folk dance in 7/8
    • IV Bulgarian folk-song
    • V Bulgarian folk dance in 9/8
  • Velkov: Tango
  • Velkov: Two Modern Dances
  • Velkov: The Wild Horse

ADMISSION

  • R120 (adults)
  • *R80 (pensioners)
  • *R70 (UFS staff)
  • *R50 (students, learners and block bookings of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket or online at http://online.computicket.com/web/

*Please note that tickets for pensioners, students, learners and UFS staff can only be purchased at a Computicket outlet (Shoprite Checkers) or at the doors since a valid card or ID has to be presented to qualify for the above mentioned discount.

ENQUIRIES
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)


Back
DAVID HELBOCK – Solo Piano

Playing compositions from the recent ACT CD release Playing John Williams & Into the Mystic

12 March 2020

Odeion

19:30


“Great!” - Jazz thing (DE)
“Accomplished, melodic playing” - The London Times (GB)
“David Helbock is a musician to watch. [...] An impeccable pianist with a clear, crisp touch.” - Jazzwise (GB)
“Best of all, of course, is the pianism of David Helbock. He has a magical and mysterious relationship with the keyboard… a masterclass in careful control of nuance and ineffable beauty.” - Jazz da Gama (Canada)

Two rewards and the audience prize at the world biggest jazz-piano-solo competition of the Jazz Festival Montreux (CH), a lot of enthusiastic international reviews for his CDs, and tours all over the globe with his own projects - David Helbock has, without a doubt, already had a great international musical career.

The new program Playing John Williams is also the title of his fourth solo piano album after the releases Emotions (2003), Time (2007) and Purple (2012).

Since 2016 David Helbock is an exclusive artist with the well-known German jazz label ACT-Music with whom he has released two albums already – Into the Mystic (2016) and Tour d’horizon (2018). Playing John Williams, his third CD with ACT now, is a solo piano album, which was released end of August 2019.

On this album, David Helbock deals with the music of John Williams, one of the most famous film music composers of all time, who wrote nearly all the music to Steven Spielberg´s Blockbusters.

David Helbock connects seamlessly to two of his projects in the past. On the CD Purple (Traumton - 2012) the pianist dealt with compositions of the famous pop artist Prince and already back then transferred and reduced Pop Culture into his unique and creative solo piano language. On the CD Into the Mystic (ACT - 2016), David Helbock, who was awarded the most important prize of Austria – the Outstanding Artist Award in 2011, dealt with mystical stories from different mythologies together with his trio with bass ukulele and drums.

Already back then the trio touched on the music of John Williams and played an arrangement of the film music of Star Wars - a film full of cross-connections between different mythological elements.

Film music from blockbusters like Indiana Jones, Harry Potter to Jaws or Schindler´s List are reduced to their essence and shine like new in unique, creative and jazzy solo piano arrangements.

David Helbock will also perform some of his own original compositions from his album Into the Mystic - a programme that dives into a spiritual world. David was inspired to write compositions by stories of different cultures and their mythology. In this way, some very driving pieces, along with the spirit of our time but also many quiet, mystical moments, emerged.

PROGRAMME

  • Hedwig’s Theme Version 1 (John Williams)
  • E.T. (John Williams)
  • Hymn to the Fallen (John Williams)
  • Jaws (John Williams)
  • Schindler’s List (John Williams)
  • Escapades (John Williams)
  • Hedwig’s Theme Ver. 2 (John Williams)
  • Eros (David Helbock)
  • AM (David Helbock)
  • Spiritual Monk (David Helbock)
  • The Soul (David Helbock)
  • Duel of the Fates - Star Wars Episode 1 (John Williams)

ADMISSION

R160 (adults)
*R80 (pensioner s and UFS staff members)
*R60 (students, learners and block bookings of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket or online at http://online.computicket.com/web/

*Please note that tickets for pensioners, students, learners and UFS staff can only be purchased at a Computicket outlet (Shoprite Checkers) or at the doors since a valid card or ID has to be presented to qualify for the above-mentioned discount.

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