Plovdiver Symphoniker

Under a German name, the Plovdiv orchestra has spent decades on the road. The ensemble behind it was founded in 1945 as the Plovdiv Philharmonic — the first state orchestra established outside the capital — and later became the orchestra of the State Opera Plovdiv; billed abroad as the Plovdiver Symphoniker, it has toured Germany and its neighbours with opera galas, symphonic programmes and staged or semi-staged productions. Its history at home includes work with Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich, and concerts that have reached the Musikverein in Vienna. Successive chief conductors — Vladi Simeonov, Ruslan Raychev and Dobrin Petkov among them — shaped a body equally fluent in opera, ballet, operetta and the symphonic repertoire, and one with a record of first performances of Bulgarian composers.