Balkan Moods Project

Teodosii Spassov

Teodosii Spassov is a world-renowned ambassador of the kaval—an emblematic instrument of Bulgarian folklore and one of the oldest musical instruments in Europe. He has developed a distinctive style in which he blends traditional folklore with jazz, classical music and other genres.

He has received numerous honors and awards, including the International Academy of Arts Award in Paris (1996) and the “Apollon Toxophoros” statuette for his outstanding contribution to Bulgarian music and his international success (2001). In 2011, he received the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture’s highest distinction, the “Golden Age,” for his significant contribution to the development and promotion of Bulgarian culture and traditional music.

He was also awarded the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius, First Class with Collar, for outstanding contribution to Bulgarian culture (2013), and the honorary title Doctor Honoris Causa by the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv (2014). In 2015, he was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace.

His distinctions also include the “Maestro Dimitar Valchev” Award for Theatre Music (2018), the Sofia Award for outstanding contribution to music and film (2021), and the Askeer Theatre Award (2021), among others.

Atanas Ourkouzounov

Atanas Ourkouzounov is a guitarist and composer regarded as one of the most significant composers for guitar of his generation. He grew up in Bulgaria and began his studies with Dimitar Doychinov. He later studied in France with Arnaud Dumond, Alexandre Lagoya and Olivier Chassain. In 1997, he was unanimously awarded First Prize in Guitar at the Conservatoire National de Paris. There he also studied chamber music, ethnomusicology and generative improvisation.

His catalogue comprises more than one hundred works—for solo guitar, duos, trios, quartets, diverse instrumental ensembles and five concertos—published by Doberman-Yppan, Henri Lemoine and Éditions Fougeray. His works have received numerous distinctions at prestigious festivals, including Michele Pittaluga – Città di Alessandria (Italy, 1997), Paolo Barsacchi (Italy, 1997), Il Fronimo – Suvini Zerboni (Italy, 1998), Ciudad de Montevideo (Uruguay, 1998), and Carrefour mondial de la guitare (Martinique, 1998).

His music is performed by many of today’s leading guitarists, including Zoran Dukić, Judicaël Perroy, Denis Azabagić, Goran Krivokapić, Shin-ichi Fukuda, Jérémy Jouve, Scott Tennant, Eduardo Isaac, Pablo Márquez, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Thibault Cauvin, Dimitri Illarionov, Edin Karamazov, Gabriel Bianco, Thomas Müller-Pering and Duo Palissandre.

He gives masterclasses around the world and is frequently invited to serve on international competition juries. He teaches at the Maurice Ravel Conservatoire in Paris’s 13th arrondissement.

George Vassilev

George Vassilev is known for his distinctive artistic approach, musical voice and virtuoso command of the instrument. He is a first-prize laureate of five major international competitions, including the Concours International d’Exécution Musicale (CIEM) in Geneva, an achievement that established him as a soloist on the international music scene.

He has performed in renowned venues including the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Festival Hall in London, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Copenhagen Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne and Waterfront Hall in Belfast.

As a soloist, he has appeared with the Sofia Philharmonic, Sofia Soloists, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta de Cámara de Madrid, Hermitage Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra and Australian Chamber Orchestra, among others.

He has collaborated with concert agencies including IMG Artists, The Springboard Concert Trust, LACCS and Georg Hörtnagel Konzertdirektion, and has performed under distinguished conductors such as Saulius Sondeckis, Thierry Fischer, Emil Tabakov, Richard Tognetti and James Crabb.

A regular guest at prestigious international festivals, he also shares his experience through masterclasses at music forums around the world. Since 2001, he has led the guitar class at HEMU in Switzerland.

Irina-Kalina Goudeva

Internationally acclaimed double bassist and interdisciplinary artist Irina-Kalina Goudeva was born in Sofia and lives in Switzerland. She graduated from the Sofia State Conservatory under Prof. Todor Toshev and from the Geneva Conservatory under Prof. Franco Petracchi, where she received First Prize for Virtuosity in 1993.

As a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral performer, she has developed an active international career, including service as solo double bassist of the Royal Danish Theatre Orchestra from 1997 to 2001. She has collaborated with leading European ensembles and with composers including Pierre Boulez, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann and Heinz Holliger.

Her repertoire ranges from Renaissance and Baroque music to contemporary, jazz and electroacoustic works, and she frequently incorporates her own alto voice into her performances.

Goudeva is artistic director and administrator of Ikana Art Studio and of the ARTS Caves de Courten cultural complex in Switzerland. More than 35 works have been written especially for her, and her discography includes over 30 CDs. She has received numerous international awards and performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North and South America.

Dimitar Ivanov

Dimitar Ivanov is a musician specializing in the ten-string guitar. He began his musical education at New Bulgarian University in 2005, continued at the Conservatory in Sion, Switzerland, with George Vassilev from 2006 to 2014, studied in the Tonmeister programme at Zurich University of the Arts from 2015 to 2017 with a scholarship from the Konstantin and Zinovia Katzarovi Foundation, and completed his studies at the Geneva Conservatory with Dušan Bogdanović in 2017–2018. He has taken part in masterclasses with distinguished classical guitarists including Zoran Dukić, Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Micheli, as well as with musicians such as Avishai Cohen, John McLaughlin, Francis Coletta and Matteo Mancuso.

He has performed at festivals including Lavaux Classique in Cully, Guitar Days in Sion, Les Rencontres Guitares in Bulle and Rencontres Orient Occident du Château Mercier in Sierre, as well as in Bulgaria, Switzerland, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. Inspired by Balkan music, he has developed a repertoire that includes arrangements and original compositions.

Dimitar has recorded more than ten albums, including Beyond Borders (2015), Balkan Fragments (2017) and Solo Ten (2019). In 2021, he released Goldberg Variations for two ten-string guitars, which was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA). He has worked with musicians including Egberto and Alexandre Gismonti, Derek Gripper, Mihail Ivanov and Mario Forte.

In 2024, he presented his trio project Homage to Egberto Gismonti in Switzerland and joined the Balkan Moods quintet with internationally acclaimed musicians Teodosii Spassov (kaval), Atanas Ourkouzounov (guitar), George Vassilev (guitar) and Irina-Kalina Goudeva (double bass and voice), with whom he performed a series of concerts and recorded an album.