Bulgarian brothers heading for Carnegie Hall!

After both boys won first place in individual performances and again for their piano duet in the prestigious talent contest American Protégé, they decided to apply to perform at Carnegie Hall’s ‘concert of winners.’  

The competition required a video performance of less than seven minutes.  Hassan played Toccata from St. Pierre and Ibrahim a work by Rodion Shchedrin.  As a piano duet, they sent a video clip of their performance of Rhapsody Vardar that featured their four hands working brilliantly.

Last week they received an invitation to perform in the concert of winners on 23 May at Carnegie Hall, said their father Denis Ignatov. "We're still feeling the euphoria, we haven’t yet figured out how we will raise funds to participate," he says.  If May is not possible, the organisers have provided an alternative date in December for the brothers to be guest performers at the famed venue.

Since their success at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Malta in November 2014, they received many calls from the US to visit and perform.  “We are so happy that many of our immigrants in the US want to see and hear the eleven year olds from Shumen perform live,” Ignatov says.

“Our home is now like a little music school,” he continues.  “We are so grateful to the Dimitar Berbatov Foundation and generous donors from home and abroad who bought the boys two pianos and a grand piano.”

The brothers rehearse intensively at home every day, never seeming to tire; and have additional hours of music and studies at school too, financed by the Shumen municipality.  The boys are currently preparing for a joint concert with the Pleven Philharmonic on the 25th of March before more rehearsals start to gear up for the international competition ‘Pancho Vladigerov’ from the 29th April to 10th May.

If you are interested in finding out more about contributing to Hassan and Ibrahim’s fundraising efforts to get to Carnegie Hall, then please contact their agent Dora Wilczek via email at: [email protected]