In April 2026, the 13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ National Endowment Fund loaned its musical instruments to be used free of charge by distinguished students at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music.
The Departmental Council of the Music Academy, which includes professors in the String Instruments Department, nominated the distinguished students who will have the opportunity to perform on the ‘Sofia’ violin, a Stradivarius model, crafted by Iuri Malinovski, and on the violin named after Prof. M. Balkanski. According to the decision of the Fund’s Management Council, the instruments may be used by the students until they complete their higher musical education.
The musical instruments were loaned to Tsveti Dankina and Sofia Dimitrova, first- and third-year students respectively, who were given the opportunity to choose which of the instruments to use.
NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ also owns an Evrard violin, which is currently being used free of charge by Stefan Velikov, a student at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music. He studies violin in the class of Assoc. Prof. Galina Koycheva, PhD.
For more than ten years, NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ has been in a partnership with the National Academy of Music in Sofia. Students from the Academy are to perform on instruments owned by the Fund at the official ceremony of the National Literary Prize for Bulgarian Novel of the Year in May 2026.