Ivan Balsamadjiev

Ivan Balsamadjiev took his degree at the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia in 1977 and went straight into the provincial companies: the drama theatre in Vidin until 1979, then Pernik until 1985, and from 1985 to 1991 the Sofia company Salza i Smyah. He presented a series of television entertainment programmes. He was born in 1953 and died in 2010. By the turn of the century he had created sixty-eight stage roles and more than ten in film, having trained under Apostol Karamitev and Encho Halachev, and in 1995 he received the newly instituted title of Academician of the Union of Bulgarian Artists. He was the first and, according to his concert biography of 2000, at that time the only performer of the solo part of Victor Chuchkov's Concerto for Laughter and Orchestra, which the composer wrote for him. He also wrote the novel Borbata sas zloto v men and directed and dramatised the one-man show drawn from it. He was born in Troyan, and the book appeared in 1999. On screen he was seen in Katina, Avalanche and Almost a Magic Adventure, and his television work for the national broadcaster included Nedelen ekspres and Chas po vsichko.