Fortissimo Academy

Fortissimo Academy is one strand of Fortissimo, the education programme built around the Sofia Philharmonic's players by the conductor Maxim Eshkenazy with money from the America for Bulgaria Foundation. It grew out of Fortissimo Family, the children's series, in that series' fourth season, and admits anyone aged sixteen and over on the price of a ticket. Each evening pairs a spoken, illustrated portrait of a composer with a complete performance of the work; Rachmaninov, Gershwin, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Monteverdi and Vivaldi have all had one, in Bulgaria Hall.