Pancho Vladigerov
Vladigerov, Pancho
Born Mar. 13, 1899, in Zürich. Bulgarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher. People’s Artist of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (1949).
From 1912 to 1921, Vladigerov studied composition with P. Juon (a student of S. I. Taneev) and piano with L. Kreutzer in Berlin, where he later worked in the German Theater of M. Reinhardt as a composer and conductor (1921-32). In 1932, Vladigerov became a professor at the State Musical Academy in Sofia; among his students were K. Iliev, P. Khadzhiev, and A. Raichev.
In his strikingly emotional creative work Vladigerov relies on folk songs and dances, combining a folklore base with modern European compositional technique. His works are distinguished by their brilliant orchestration—for example, the Vardar Rhapsody (1922), the Bulgarian Rhapsody, the Bulgarian Suite for Orchestra, and Seven Bulgarian Dances. He toured the USSR in 1945. Vladigerov received the Dimitrov Prize in 1950 and 1953.
Vladigerov’s principal works are the opera Tsar Kaloian (1936), the ballet Legend of the Lake (1946, staged in 1962), two symphonies, the heroic overture The Ninth of September (1949), symphonic poems, and concertos—five for piano, one for violin. He has also written chamber works, many piano pieces, songs, and arrangements of folk songs.