Sedya- A Bulgarian Cry

My goal as a musician and composer is to challenge the way people think about "valuable" classical music and expand the boundaries of what it can mean. Music is always changing, and this evolution often unsettles musicians because it forces them to confront the question: What makes music important or valuable? To me, this question oversimplifies what music truly is and what it exists to do. Music isn’t meant to fit neatly into a hierarchy of importance or a narrow definition of value. It is art, a powerful rhetorical tool that provokes thought, evokes emotion, and reflects the human experience.

This year, I worked on a project that explored Bulgarian folk music, a genre hidden for centuries due to oppression and marginalization. This process completely reshaped my understanding of music’s role in life. It showed me that what often gets labeled as "important" music tends to align with dominant narratives of power, privilege, and accessibility, leaving so many rich traditions overlooked.