Selected text
My life after 9th September 1944 was very nice. I graduated from high school and was very happy. My first public concert was also at that time. It was a charity concert for the Jewish orphanage in Sofia, which was in great misery. So, I and some boys of my age with whom I played in the school orchestra, put some tickets on sale and we organized a concert. We played the accordion, saxophone and the orphans danced. It all went great.
I never had problems at my work for being a Jew. On the contrary, I have always been respected. I was declared an Honored Artist. I was given the rank of colonel, head of the Army Ensemble. The story of how I became head of the ensemble is interesting. It all started with a personal tragedy. While I was still a student, I suddenly lost my eyesight. It happened on 2nd March 1948. It turned out to be lack of vitamins and milk. I weighed only 44 kilograms then. But I recovered thanks to an incredible woman, Dr. Roza Goleminova. Later the same year, I was already healthy when I met Petar Stupel [a Bulgarian composer] on the stairs of the Musical Academy. He told me to apply for the competition for a composer for the children’s radio theater. At that time some distinguished artists worked there: Grisha Ostrovski [20] was the director, Veselin Hanchev [21] was the playwright, and Leda Mileva [22] was the head of the literature department. The poet Alexander Gerov [23] was the editor-in-chief of the literature department. An incredible staff! I was appointed among them and was really honored. Those were great times!
I never had problems at my work for being a Jew. On the contrary, I have always been respected. I was declared an Honored Artist. I was given the rank of colonel, head of the Army Ensemble. The story of how I became head of the ensemble is interesting. It all started with a personal tragedy. While I was still a student, I suddenly lost my eyesight. It happened on 2nd March 1948. It turned out to be lack of vitamins and milk. I weighed only 44 kilograms then. But I recovered thanks to an incredible woman, Dr. Roza Goleminova. Later the same year, I was already healthy when I met Petar Stupel [a Bulgarian composer] on the stairs of the Musical Academy. He told me to apply for the competition for a composer for the children’s radio theater. At that time some distinguished artists worked there: Grisha Ostrovski [20] was the director, Veselin Hanchev [21] was the playwright, and Leda Mileva [22] was the head of the literature department. The poet Alexander Gerov [23] was the editor-in-chief of the literature department. An incredible staff! I was appointed among them and was really honored. Those were great times!
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Jul Efraim Levi