Second Monday Music: Rila Music Exchange 2013

(L-R) Laura, Dessislava, Valeria, & Sofia
(at the American University in Bulgaria, April 2011)

How to put this without being overly dramatic?

By Geoffrey Dean

To say that it all began when Sofia introduced us to Myriam would be plausible enough. But the genesis of the Rila Music Exchange goes further back, back to when Laura introduced us to Sofia. When Laura, an American, had come to Plovdiv, Bulgaria in the fall of 2010 to study folk music at the Academy of Music and Dance Art, she ended up rooming with a young Swedish woman named Sofia who was there for the same reason.

Music under the Rila sky

By Morris Dean

Rila Music Exchange is a joint project of the Ardenza Foundation and the Municipality of Rila, in Bulgaria. The most recent Exchange took place August 31-Sept. 8, with workshops bringing young ethno-musicians of all nationalities to the Rila mountains of southwestern Bulgaria to learn and perform together with local amateur folk music ensembles, enlivening village squares in the region with celebrations of folk music from around the world.