Camellia Todorova & Vassil Petrov & Big band NМА leader Mihail Yossifov, Bulgaria
Kamelia Todorova is among the esteemed artists of Bulgarian jazz. She launched a remarkable career after she had graduated from the Music Academy in Sofia and had collaborated with renowned musicians being Lyudmil Georgiev, Simeon Shterev, Mario Stanchev, Teodosii Spasov, Petar Slavov and Villy Kazasyan. Owing to her exceptional voice, grace and elegant stage presence, she soon became a prominent performer and appeared in the cinema, as well. Frustrated by the constraints of the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria, in the mid-1980s, Kamelia Todorova absconded and resided in Germany, where she recorded two singles and worked with Roger Taylor (Queen). After the collapse of the regime, Todorova returned to Bulgaria and resumed her career, releasing album after album and teaching at the NBU (New Bulgarian University).
After graduating from the Academy of Music, Vasil Petrov quickly established himself as one of the leading jazz and pop artists. Vasil Petrov is a true follower of Frank Sinatra. He has accomplished numerous projects in jazz and pop music with chamber and philharmonic orchestras, jazz trios and bands. Frankenpost calls him “a performer with incredible presence, with a velvet voice” – akin to luminaries such as Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
NMA Big Band
The Big Band of the Pop and Jazz Art Department of the National Academy of Music was founded in the mid-1970s by Yonko Tatarov as a training orchestra for student players of various specialties. Since 2015 the Big Band has been led by Mihail Yosifov – one of the most successful Bulgarian trumpeters, who is also a composer and arranger.