Plovdiv's specialist secondary school of music and dance keeps a full student orchestra, which plays in the city's concert life rather than only within the school's walls. The school carries the name of Dobrin Petkov, the conductor who shaped musical life in Plovdiv for a generation; in 2023 its orchestra took part in the concerts marking the centenary of his birth, an occasion in which the city's professional and student musicians appeared side by side.