Dobri Paliev

Dobri Paliev was timpani soloist of the Bulgarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and a percussion teacher. Born at Pernik in 1928, he had played accordion, trumpet and drums as a boy before entering the State Academy of Music in Sofia; from his place in the orchestra he built a systematic training method, enlarged the solo and chamber repertory, and wrote studies and concert pieces for snare drum, timpani, xylophone, vibraphone and mixed percussion for percussion players. His research into Bulgarian bells, clappers and cowbells joined ethnomusicology to instrumental practice. In 1976 he founded the ensemble Polyrhythmia, and as professor at the National Academy of Music he trained generations of players, many of whom made their careers abroad. He died in 1997. He studied with Ivan Zagorski, was the first Bulgarian to perform on xylophone and vibraphone, played at the Musical Theatre, and toured with an instrumental trio alongside Tinko Stanchev and Peter Penchev. Twenty-two collections of his pieces appeared from Fuseau, Simrock, Otto Wrede, Honey Rock and Zimmermann, and his studies reached Percussive Notes in the United States. He founded summer academies at Saint Sauvé in France and in Varna, taught at the Strasbourg Conservatory on invitation, and was nominated for the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2002.