Grigor Palikarov – the conductor, who will conduct “Prince Igor” by Borodin on 17 and 18 March.
Karajan said: “I can pay no attention to some false note, but if the tempo is false – I become aggressive.” Maestro Palikarov watches, except for the tempo, also for the absolute preciseness in the true performance.
Perfectionism, intellect and height – these are some of the few qualities of our great conductor maestro Palikarov.
When like Karajan, Palikarov closed his eyes in a slight smile, when the Japanese audience, holding its breath, was enjoying the spectacle of “Prince Igor” in 2015, people can say to themselves – Karajan is alive!
Grigor Palikarov was born in 1971 in Plovdiv. He graduated from the National School of Music and Dance Art “Dobrin Petkov” – Plovdiv with specialty Piano with full excellent marks and a golden badge in 1990, and after that from the National Academy of Music “Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia with magister degrees for 4 specialties: opera and symphonic conducting by Prof. V. Kazandjiev and Prof. Iv. Vulpe; composition by Prof. D. Tapkov, piano – by Prof. Kr. Taskov and chorus conducting by Prof. St. Kralev. He specialized composition by Prof. Erich Urbanner from the Vienna Conservatory.
He debuted on the opera stage still as a student (22-years old), when he conducted “Rigoletto” at the opera theatres in Pleven and Stara Zagora.
His professional career as conductor he began in the Symphonic Orchestra of the Ensemble of the Bulgarian Army (1995-1997), and from 1997 to 1999, he was Chief conductor of the Ensemble. Meanwhile, he was holding the post Conductor and Chief art director of the eminent Youth Philharmonic “Pioneer” (1998-2003). He debuted at the National Opera and Ballet – Sofia in 1998, conducting a Gala concert of Ghena Dimitrova at her explicit invitation. Since 2001, he was appointed for regular conductor at the opera and at this moment his repertoire includes more than 50 opera and ballet titles of works by: Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Weber, Verdi, Wagner, Ponchielli, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Gounod, Delibes, Bizet, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and others. Since season 2005/2006, he has ben also Chief art director and Conductor of the Symphonic and Operetta Society “Maestro G. Atanasov” – Pazardzhik.
At the moment Grigor Palikarov is a frequent guest-conductor of many orchestras and opera theatres in the country, among which: Symphonic Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, Classic FM Orchestra – Sofia, of which he has been permanent conductor since season 2008/09, Sofia Philharmonic, Festival Orchestra – Sofia, the State operas in Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna, Ruse and Stara Zagora, Pleven Philharmonic and others. Among his series of conductor’s appearances a special place take his numerous studio recordings of different works with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio, as well as the participations at prestigious national and international music festivals like “Sofia Music Weeks ”, “March Music Days” – Ruse, “European Music Festival” – Sofia, “Apollonia”, Laureate Days “Katya Popova” – Pleven, “Austrian Music Weeks”, “New Bulgarian Music”, “Winter Music Evenings” – Pazardzhik, Festival of the Opera and Ballet Art – Stara Zagora, Festival for Modern Music – Pula, Croatia, “May Opera Evenings” – Skopje, Macedonia and others.
Grigor Palikarov regularly realizes numerous guest-performances abroad in countries like Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Russia, the USA, Slovenia, Taiwan, Holland, Korea, Japan. He has stood on the stand of the Royal Belgian Philharmonic – Brussels, the National Opera and Ballet – Ljubljana, the Vienna Chamber Ensemble “New Tone”, the Symphonic Orchestra “Century” – Taipei, Taiwan, Company Opera Circle – Cleveland, the USA, where his debut was marked as one of the most important music events for 2009 for the state of Ohayo, the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet – Russia, the Janáček Philharmonic – the Czech Republic and others.
Together with his conducting activity, maestro Palikarov composes, gives concerts as pianist and teaches. Some of his works were performed at a series of festivals and recorded more than once. For his successful appearances as composer and pianist, he was awarded a series of prestigious national and international prizes from the competitions “Svetoslav Obretenov”, “Albert Russell”, “Music and Earth” and others. He was winner of the prestigious “Golden Lyre” of the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers – 2001 and 2012, as well as of the “Golden Feather”.
In the frames of two mandates, he has been President of “Mensa” – Bulgaria – a branch of the world organization of people with a high coefficient of intelligence.