JMC Rocks marked their 10^th anniversary and celebrated the Journalism and Mass Communications Major on April 18^th, gathering faculty, alumni, and current JMC students. Continue reading…

Mark Waterhouse, Mark Leonard and Bruno the dog are among the chosen ones nominated for More Honors Awards this year. The names of the nominees became clear yesterday in the traditional “More Honors Announcing the Nominees” party in Piano Bar Unlimited.

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Three-time world wrestling champion Armen Nazaryan was among the honorary guests on this year’s AUBG Olympics day. The main event was held on Sunday, April 14, at the usual place – Porter Baseball Field. Among the other guests were the combat sambo coach Stoyan Saladinov and his champions – Rumen and Rosen Dimitrovi. The whole event turned out to be successful, as it got a lot of players and attendants.

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Students often feel trapped in the vicious circle of ” I can’t get a job without experience, I can’t get experience without a job.” Christoph Speck, the Country Supply Chain Manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bulgaria gave a lecture at AUBG that challenged that common belief. According to Speck, professional success is based on human interactions, passion and innovation, more than on experience or theoretical knowledge. Continue reading…

A bizarre performance, centered on the touchy subject of race segregation, was the first event ever to be staged in the new theater in the ABF. And what a kick-off!  Of course, for the ones that did not get it by now, I am describing the premiere of the new AUBG musical “Memphis”. Continue reading…

Marcel and Catherine Celliers

On Monday, April 1st, the Documentary Movie Club screened the film “Balkan Melodie,” which is a co-production of Switzerland, Germany and Bulgaria. The movie tells the story of Marcel and Catherine Celliers’ lifelong love for the music of Eastern Europe and their efforts to popularize it among western societies, that were deprived of its sounds because of the East’s Communist regimes.

The film’s story is one that can best be appreciated by true music lovers. It is the tale of how Marcel’s passion for folklore turned from a businessman’s hobby into the meticulously planned pursuit of finding and collecting the music he thought deserved to be listened to by an increasing number of people.  The couple worked in Romania and Bulgaria in the 70s and 80s and did everything they could to devise ways of spreading these countries’ musical heritage, despite the peculiarity of the times. Thus, for example, it remains a secret how Marcel and Catherine managed to travel beyond the Iron Curtain 64 times in just a few years. It is true, however, that this seems insignificant compared to the contribution they made for the worldwide appreciation of the unique Balkan sounds.

Members of "The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices"

“Balkan Melodie” is not simply a documentary about music. It has multiple layers and tells a story much bigger than it initially implies. It is indeed an account of how Marcel and Catherine Celliers worked with “The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices” and the Romanian panpipes virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir and turned them into international celebrities. The movie also touches upon  the much larger issues of post-Communist reality and the future of the culture in the countries where state subsidies for art have been shrunk considerably or even entirely terminated. In this way, we see that despite being Grammy Award winners, the women form “The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices” haven’t been performing as much as they used to because the popularity of their music decreased after the change of the regime. They were forced to find other permanent jobs in order to support themselves.

Romanian panpipes virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfi

Thus, the film sets important questions and makes its audience think about the constant need for continuity between the old and the new generations of music artists. In this sense, what the documentary makes obvious is that we not only have to preserve and appreciate our cultural heritage, but also make sure that the upcoming generations will be genuinely interested in it. Only this will insure that what Marcel and Catherine Celliers did was not in vain.

Official Poster

Apart from being an examination of these deeply socio-political issues, “Balkan Melodie” is also a visual and sound delight with its beautiful archival footage and the numerous music performances featured in it.  The director, Stefan Schwietert, is a famous Swiss music documentary filmmaker, who managed to convey not only the indisputable beauty of the Balkan music, but also its specific melancholy that makes it compelling to listen to.

A special guest of the film’s screening was the producer, Martichka Bozhilova, who shared interesting behind-the-scenes facts and told the viewers more about the story of the film. She pointed out that the documentary was featured in the program screenings of many prestigious international film festivals in Germany and Switzerland, and was also a participant in the biggest documentary film festival in Amsterdam, Holland.

Eight girls will be competing for the Miss AUBG 2013 crown on Friday, March 29. The participants were chosen through casting, impressing the jury with their beauty, charm, creativity, and talents. Continue reading…

On March 26, StartUP@Blagoevgrad gathered AUBGers and locals at the Piano Bar Ltd  to promote thie upcoming StartUp conference that will be held on 30-31 of March. The event aims to create a network of students and young people, who want to launch a business, and give them the opportunity to build up connections to entrepreneurs and investors. Continue reading…