Mikhail Lefterov

He was born on June 29, 1907 in Sofia to a senior officer. His mother was a pianist. In 1927 he graduated from the Music Academy in the piano class of Prof. Nevena Mitova. He has been performing since the age of five. After the Academy he gave concerts and taught. He performed piano recitals, accompanied famous Bulgarian singers and instrumentalists, and worked as an accompanist at the Cooperative Operetta Theater. Having already gained considerable experience, after specializing in conducting at the Higher School of Music in Berlin, in 1939 he was a regular conductor of the Royal Symphony Orchestra (Sofia Philharmonic).

In 1942 and 1943 he toured with great success as an opera conductor in Berlin and Coburg, conducting Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and Madame Butterfly. He received a contract as a permanent conductor in Breslau (Wroclaw), but due to the war he returned to his homeland. In 1945, as a full-time conductor, he staged "Madame Butterfly" at the Sofia Opera, then "Il Trovatore" and "Don Pasquale" and the ballets "Prometheus" (after Beethoven), "Coppélia" by Delibes.

About a concert of the Sofia Philharmonic in December 1944, conducted by him, Marin Goleminov wrote the following lines: “What characterizes Mihail Lefterov is his technical preparation and artistic maturity, despite his youth. His qualities as a very good pianist allowed him to interpret his scores, and that means to get to know them deeply, to penetrate them, because the conductor is also an interpreter between composer and environment. To conduct means to interpret. This is precisely where Mikhail Lefterov’s greatest quality lies. One of these achievements was the first concert of the State Philharmonic for this season, which turned into a real musical event.” (Izgrev newspaper, December 15, 1944).

Since 1947, he has been the permanent conductor at the Opera.