Team

Founded upon Vratsa’s rich musical traditions, the Vratsa Symphony Orchestra (Симфониета‑Враца) traces its lineage to an early city opera orchestra active in the first decade of the 20th century and to the cultural life centered around the ‘Razvitie’ community centre. In 1973 the ensemble received full state philharmonic status, establishing itself as a professional orchestra for Northwestern Bulgaria. Since then, Vratsa’s orchestra has developed a vibrant symphonic and operatic profile, presenting seasons of orchestral concerts, opera and oratorio projects, regional tours, and guest appearances across Bulgaria and abroad.

Today the orchestra is known for its dynamic programming—from Baroque and Classical masterworks through the Romantic canon to contemporary Bulgarian music—its collaborations with leading guest soloists and conductors, and its commitment to mentoring the next generation of artists through masterclasses, recording projects, and educational initiatives. Recent seasons have drawn an international cohort of young professionals to Vratsa, reflecting the orchestra’s growing profile as a welcoming, high‑performance ensemble with a global outlook. The orchestra is based in the city’s cultural hub on Hristo Botev Square and maintains an active calendar including festivals and special projects each season.

With deep historical roots and a forward‑looking spirit, the Vratsa Symphony Orchestra continues to be one of Bulgaria’s vital musical ambassadors—honouring its heritage while remaining open, ambitious, and artistically bold.

Derek Gleeson is an Irish–American conductor, composer, and educator whose leadership across concert, opera, and screen music has shaped the training of conductors and media composers for over three decades. In his formative years he performed under Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, and Lorin Maazel as a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra at the Salzburg, Edinburgh, and Lucerne Festivals—experiences that inspired his commitment to a life in conducting. In 1984 he was a prize winner in the prestigious Shell/London Symphony Orchestra Music Scholarship Program. He later studied as a special student under Karl Österreicher at the Hochschule für Musik Wien (now the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), and also trained in Dublin, London, and at UCLA, with a dual focus on conducting and film scoring.

Since 1997, Gleeson has served as Music Director of the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra and, following the reconstitution of the Vienna Festival Orchestra, as its Music Director and Principal Conductor. His guest conducting engagements span Europe, Asia, and North America, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Czech National Symphony, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, Karlovy Vary Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, Bulgarian National Radio Symphony, and the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.

Gleeson has led major international tours, notably a 49‑city United States tour with the Dublin Philharmonic (2009) and a China tour (2010) featuring World Expo concerts in Shanghai and the Beijing Summer Festival opening concerts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, broadcast to hundreds of millions. He returned to China for a Gala at the Great Hall of the People with the National Ballet of China Symphony (2014) and became Principal Guest Conductor of the Harbin Symphony Orchestra in 2016.

An early champion of contemporary music, Gleeson has premiered concert works in Europe and the U.S. and recorded with the London Philharmonic and others. His film credits include The White Pony, Irish Whiskey, Moving Target, The Doorway, and Kitchen, as well as additional music for The Suicide Club.

Gleeson has been a catalyst for education and program building since the mid‑1990s: Director of Screen Training Ireland’s Film Scoring Program, founding Program Director of Ireland’s first MA in Scoring for Film & Visual Media, and since 2018 Founder/CEO/Artistic Director of the Film Scoring Academy of Europe and the Gleeson Conducting Institute in Sofia, where he mentors emerging conductors and composers through immersive, AI‑enhanced curricula and hands‑on orchestral programs.

Opera credits include Verdi (La traviata, Il trovatore, Rigoletto, Un ballo in maschera), Mozart (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte), Bizet (Carmen), and Tchaikovsky (Eugene Onegin).

Assoc. Prof. Hristo Pavlov is a Bulgarian conductor, composer, and flutist, serving as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Vratsa Symphony Orchestra since 2017. A laureate of national and international competitions, Pavlov previously held the chair of First Flute in the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra (1990–2014) before focusing his career on conducting and artistic leadership. He has appeared with ensembles such as the Czech Philharmonic, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Metropolitan Orchestra, Philharmonia Bulgarica, the Youth Orchestra of Radio ClassicFM, the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, and Sofia Symphony. In higher education, he teaches orchestration, studio production for symphony orchestra, and video‑game music within the master’s programme in film composition at Pulse College (Dublin).

Pavlov’s seasons in Vratsa have emphasized a broad repertoire and international collaboration, and he has been credited with attracting and retaining a young, global cohort of musicians to the orchestra. Beyond the concert hall, his production work includes projects for international media companies; his recordings have received distinctions cited in Bulgarian national media.

Vincent de Kort is a distinguished Dutch conductor known for his energetic style, inspirational leadership, and deep commitment to both tradition and innovation. He is regularly invited to conduct at leading orchestras and opera houses around the world including the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Mariinsky Theatre, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Oper Leipzig, Royal Swedish Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Scottish Opera, and New National Theatre in Tokyo.

In 2015, de Kort made history as the first Dutch conductor ever to lead a performance at the Bolshoi Theatre, directing the 75th‑birthday gala for legendary dancer and former Bolshoi director Vladimir Vasiliev. His repertoire ranges from Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven through Romantic works, opera classics, to contemporary and world‑premiere works. He is especially respected for his Mozart operas and period‑style interpretations of classical and early Romantic works.

His formation is impressive: he studied cello and baroque cello, was a cellist in the European Union Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, and later trained in conducting with Ed Spanjaard (The Hague), Mariss Jansons (Oslo), and the legendary Ilya Musin (St. Petersburg). He has also served as assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and William Christie.

Beyond performance, de Kort is well known in the public sphere: from 2015‑2019 he was jury chairman of the primetime Dutch television show Maestro, watched weekly by millions. He teaches masterclasses internationally, serves on competition juries, has published a book “The Magic of the Maestro” (2019), and is active in outreach work, inspiring new audiences and young conductors.

Nikola Petrov is a Bulgarian conductor and score supervisor whose work spans concert, opera, and studio recording. A graduate of the National Academy of Music in Sofia with emphases in classical percussion performance, choral and opera‑symphonic conducting, and symphonic orchestration, Petrov has appeared with the Vratsa Symphony Orchestra (where he has served as conductor since 2018) as well as in opera‑gala and symphonic programmes across Bulgaria. In the studio, he collaborates regularly with the European Recording Orchestra and has supervised and conducted sessions at the Bulgarian National Radio studios.

His performance and production credits include tours and engagements across Europe, the United States, Canada, China, and the United Arab Emirates. Petrov’s background in percussion and orchestration informs a pragmatic rehearsal style and a clear, collaborative approach with soloists, chorus, and orchestra.

Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from Sofia, Bulgaria. Ground transportation from Sofia Airport to Vratsa is available by train (approx. 2 hours), bus or private car.

Hemus Hotel is located in the center of Vratsa and is walkable to shops, restaurants, and cultural sites.

Additional excursions may be arranged based on interest and availability.

Visa support documents can be provided upon request for international participants.