Orchester

The intense development of music and performance art during the first years of independence in Bulgaria lead to the creation of professional symphonic, opera and chamber ensembles. Together with them the first military wind orchestras were formed. Their repertoire consists of marches, polkas, overtures, etc., as well as horo music and medleys of folk songs. A large number of composers at that time wrote folk-based music for wind orchestras. The most talented composer of such music was Diko Iliev. After his participation in the Balkan War and the First World War, he began composing horos, which are still being loved by the Bulgarian people. From 1931 Diko Iliev played the baritone in the newly-founded wind orchestra in Oryahovo and thus he put the beginning of one of his most intense periods of creative activity. Iliev had the happy fate to become an inseparable part of the Bulgarian urban musical folklore. After him other well-trained musicians continued this trend. Today the wind orchestra is an intrinsic part of the Bulgarian folk music culture