Atanasov, Georgi

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Atanasov, Georgi

Atanasov, Georgi, Bulgarian composer and bandmaster; b. Plovdiv, May 18, 1881; d. Fasano, Italy, Nov. 17, 1931. He went to Italy in 1901 and took lessons in composition with Mascagni at the Pesaro Cons. Returning to Bulgaria, he became active as a military bandmaster, as well as a composer. He wrote 2 of the earliest operas on national Bulgarian subjects, Borislav (Sofia, March 4, 1911) and Gergana (Sofia, June 19, 1917); other operas were Zapustialata vodenitza (The Abandoned Mill; Sofia, March 31, 1923), Altzek, and Tzveta; he also wrote 2 children’s operas, The Sick Teacher and About Birds.

Bibliography

I. Sagaev, Maestro G. A. (Sofia, 1961).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire