"Musical Immersion" in Varna, Bulgaria
by Dale Dean, Paul Williams, and Anne Williams, August, 2006
After I signed up for the Symphonic Workshop in Varna, I thought about how little I knew about Bulgaria. Apart from learning a little of its history in a long-ago college course, my image of Bulgaria was shaped by the grim, Cold-War image of the country as a dour socialist republic with notorious poisoned-umbrella-toting spies. This one-dimensional view was surely inaccurate, even in Cold War days. It is definitely inaccurate now.
I found Varna to be unexpectedly lovely. It is a resort town on the Black Sea, which Europeans are discovering, but which Americans have generally not yet found. It is worth finding. I particularly enjoyed the fine cafes along the pedestrian walk on which our hotel was located, and the lunches, afternoon coffees and dinners that our group shared together. These occasions were fun, all the more so because of the excellent, and inexpensive, Bulgarian food, wine and beer. Natasha Uzunova, assistant to Symphonic Workshop Director Patricia Hitchcock, often ordered Bulgarian dishes for us. She was so good at picking the right dishes that we joked that once we were back in the States and were having trouble deciding what to order in a restaurant, we would call her.
For me, though, the center of the experience in Varna was the music. I had never before gone away and worked on music full time, and Varna was an excellent place to do it. Our piano instructor, Milko Milkov, was first-rate. He held us to high standards and gave us real insights into the pieces we worked on. He believed his English was limited (it was less so than he thought), but he had no trouble communicating to us what he wanted, and he was so strong a virtuoso that he could clearly demonstrate it. I felt very motivated to practice, and often gladly used my allotted six hours of practice time. (Although not always. I could be easily lured away from the practice room by the prospect of afternoon coffee and pastry, or an early dinner with friends at a fine restaurant.) We had an opportunity to hear and admire the young pianists in the international piano competition and workshop. We sat in on their master classes, and we found it to be extremely helpful to hear advice from their professors about phrasing, and how to approach the different styles of classical composers.
As noted elsewhere in this chronicle, the young "hotshots" were really worth getting to know. As well as those Paul and Anne mention, I particularly enjoyed and admired the playing of Maira Freitas, a young Brazilian woman who played the first movement of Prokofiev's First Piano Concerto with power and beauty. There was also Zuzanna Pawlaszek, a Polish young woman who beautifully and elegantly performed the first movement of Chopin's F Minor Concerto. She and her sister later teamed up to give a delightful duo-piano performance of one of Astor Piazzolla's tangos.
My experience in Varna was rewarding musically and personally. Schedule permitting, I would attend the workshop again.
Dale Dean and Anne Williams with Symphonic Workshops Director, Patricia Hitchcock (center)
For me, the memories of people from all over the world assembling together, united by their love of music are very significant. A long distance to travel to Varna, to be sure, but one young stalwart, Wassim Kaissi, was determined to be there and risked his life to travel to the workshop from his war-torn country, Lebanon. He had no idea if and when he'd be able to return safely. Thankfully he did, but we've heard of some hair-raising experiences from him since he went home.
We were treated to some true Bulgarian hospitality by Natasha's parents in their home. On our way back to Bucharest, our bus driver dropped Natasha off at her parents' home. We had coffee in a little cafe over the road, then her mother insisted we stay for lunch. She wasn't prepared for four extra people arriving on her doorstep but provided us with a very enjoyable lunch. We each left bearing one of the largest tomatoes I've ever seen in my life! Natasha said they're called "Bulls' Hearts" and one look explained why!
The pianists had their own faculty, Professor Milko Milkov, whom none of us had ever met before. I'm not a pianist, but I did attend the master classes he held and learned a lot just from observing. I had my own faculty this year; Natasha's cousin, Nikolai Kamenov. Nikki, in his younger days, was a member of Bulgaria's biggest rock band! He now teaches guitar and as he was on vacation in Varna at the time he agreed to Natasha's request to be my "dedicated faculty". He spoke little English, but thanks to Natasha's excellent English she was able to interpret for him, and for me, and we got on extremely well. Nikki didn't "spare the horses" - I had my homework to do every day. He opened some musical doors which had hitherto been closed to me. It's very interesting to have a completely different "take" on a subject and to learn all the different methods and techniques of reaching your goal.
On our return, both Anne and I were reminded by Loretta Kaye (a woman who had planned to be with us but due to unexpected surgery had to cancel out) of a song we sang in Kromeriz in the Czech Republic, during a tour of the Archbishop's Castle there. A fellow band of musicians, who had been singing in the castle, were very surprised when we sang for them! The words go:
"All things shall perish from under the sky…
Music alone shall live, never to die"..
The words sum up admirably why Matt Harre and Peter Mose supported this workshop some seven years ago. Many thanks to you both. . . and to Patricia Hitchcock of Symphonic Workshops for making it possible!
Paul Williams with sisters Zuzanna (left) and Natalia Pawlaszek
August 1 saw the beginning of the seventh annual workshop for Adult Amateur Pianists and Guitarists, organized by Symphonic Workshops, Ltd., Canada, in Varna, Bulgaria.
This was the second year the workshop was held in Varna. So apart from Dale, who hadn't been there before, the "spade work" was done. It was easy to find our way around. We stayed at the same hotel as last year, the Cherno More, an older hotel (but under renovation) less than five minutes' walk from the music school and about ten minutes' walk from the beach.
We had a Bulgarian music professor this year, Professor Milko Milkov. Milko is an extraordinarily gifted pianist with enviable "piano" hands (he could stretch to a 13th!). He was rather apprehensive of meeting the three adult amateur pianists, Dale Dean, Mark Fabbi (a new participant from Canada), and yours truly. We were rather nervous about meeting him, too. Neither side knew quite what to expect from the other. But our Bulgarian friend, Natasha Uzunova (whom some members will remember from last year) soon sorted that out. We were promptly marched off to the nearest coffee shop where we enjoyed cappuccino, "formal" introductions were made, and the ice was well and truly broken.
Milko was born in Varna and is a graduate of the same music school where the workshop was held. Also graduates of that school were Natasha, and Valeri Vatchev, who conducted the Varna Philharmonic Orchestra this summer. Milko is currently a piano teacher and director of the program Music Arts in the New Bulgarian University at Sofia.
We each had a one-hour private lesson every second day. Milko is an inspirational teacher. I think all of us could honestly say we really WORKED! We were certainly able to put the 6 hours daily available practice time to good use. On the intervening days Milko held a master class for the three of us where we'd play the pieces we'd worked on, incorporating his recommendations. We were able to ask any questions and make comments or suggestions, something I believe we all found of mutual benefit.
Conductor Valeri Vatchev and Professor Milko Milkov
Once again the opportunity to play with the Varna Philharmonic, conducted by Valeri Vatchev, was available to us. Having whetted my appetite last year and enjoyed the experience immensely, I was in for a second "go," and worked on the middle movement from Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1. I have a couple of stumbling blocks in the piece, but thanks to the advice of some excellent professional help, including Milko, of course, I'm slowly "getting a handle" on them. I did perform the piece with the orchestra. It was a bit nerve-wracking, especially as the performance was scheduled at the beginning of our workshop rather than closer to the end, but I think it went reasonably well. (And thank you, Dale, for turning pages for me!) I have another year to perfect it and hope to do a repeat next year. Also, my thanks go to Valeri for the help and sharing of knowledge and expertise beforehand, and for the support during the actual performance!
In between our lessons and practice we were also able to attend (as observers) master classes given by Professors Jan Kadlubiski, Joseph Banowetz, Adam Wodnycki, Joseph Stanford and Tamas Ungar, the faculty members for the other workshop known (affectionately, I must say) as the "Hotshots"! Their group is much younger than ours and there's some amazing talent there. One of their group was a 17-year old, Danyal Swan, from South Africa. Danyal and I have e-mailed each other several times since we arrived home. Since she expressed some real interest in the adult program, I told her about AMSF and pointed her in the direction of our website. I received the following comments contained in one of her messages a couple of days ago. To me the words are so poignant I thought I'd like to share them with you. Danyal is a very mature young lady, who also has a great sense of fun.
"I had a look at the AMSF website, I like it a lot! For reasons that run quite deep. Music, for me, is everything, it is love, happiness, sadness, joy, pain, everything that can't be put into words, everything that can, and a lot of the "young" (sic) aspiring pianists today have turned it into a sort of vicious sport. I really love seeing all these adult music courses and programs because those participating do it out of choice, because they really want to, and for the true love and enjoyment of it, which is what music is truly, truly about. Not to see whose fingers are the fastest or whose octaves are the loudest, but for the true love of music. It really makes me very happy to see such things. Another reason I adore Prof Ungar. He gives you the kind of awareness of music that makes you stop and notice every beautiful flower while walking down a street."
Professor Ungar had expressed similar sentiments about adult amateurs during the trip. Although he's taught many professionals himself, he told me he really prefers teaching amateurs because they're making music for the sheer love of it. Those who are hoping to make a career of it sometimes lose something of the music because of the competitive element. He has already made a wonderful offer to be on the amateur group faculty next year. (And, in addition to being a great teacher and pianist, he's a very funny man to be around - there was much laughter at hearing him relate some of his experiences during his career!) Professor Ungar is the Founder-Executive Director of Piano Texas International Academy and Festival of the TCU (Texas Christian University).
Although we had a very busy schedule and our days were quite full, when we weren't involved in our musical activities, we did have time to do a little bit of sightseeing, as well as eating our way around Varna. There are some excellent restaurants. Natasha took us to some we didn't visit last year, helped with selections for us and took care of the ordering. Half the time I don't think we really knew exactly what we were eating, but it was always delicious. We even managed to spend a little bit of time on the beach in the mornings, before it was time to go back to our schedule.
All in all, a very happy time, not to mention musically rewarding, and I for one am taking some great memories with me until next year.
Conductor Valeri Vatchev, Prof. Joseph Banowetz, and Prof. Adam Wodnycki