Sofia Philharmonic

The Sofia Philharmonic dates its history from 1893, when the first symphony orchestra was formed in a capital barely fifteen years old and with no orchestral tradition to inherit. Everything since has grown from that beginning. Players, repertory and audience were assembled almost from nothing across the decades either side of the First World War; between the wars Sasha Popov gave the ensemble the discipline of a regular symphonic season and something close to its modern shape; and the institution passed through the successive names — Academic, Royal Military, State — that track Bulgaria's own twentieth century, arriving at the present one in 1956. Konstantin Iliev, Dobrin Petkov, Vassil Stefanov, Vladi Simeonov, Vassil Kazandjiev and Emil Tabakov each left a layer on the orchestra's sound.

Since 1937 its home has been Bulgaria Hall, built at the same moment and to the same purpose, and the two have been inseparable ever since: an orchestra and a room that grew used to each other.

As the national orchestra it carries both the central European repertory and the Bulgarian one — Vladigerov above all — and the National Philharmonic Choir, part of the institution since the early 1980s, opens the great choral-symphonic works to it.

Nayden Todorov has been artistic director since 2017. In those seasons the orchestra has played the Musikverein, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Palais des Beaux-Arts, and has widened its touring and recording work accordingly.