Bulgaria

The Sofia Philharmonic traces its origins to the Royal Orchestra founded in 1892 and its transformation into the National Philharmonic Orchestra in 1945. Its history includes conductors such as Sasha Popov, Konstantin Iliev, Dobrin Petkov and Emil Tabakov. Nayden Todorov became its director in 2017.

Pancho Vladigerov (1899–1978) combined Bulgarian musical material with orchestral, instrumental and stage forms. After working in Germany, including at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater, he returned to Bulgaria in 1932 and taught piano and composition at the Music Academy in Sofia. His works include the Vardar Rhapsody, the opera Tsar Kaloyan and five piano concertos. The Vardar Rhapsody originated for violin and piano in 1922; its orchestral version was first performed in 1928.