“The Five Elements and the Human” project addresses global environmental issues. Recognized as the five elements are: air, fire, water, earth and plastic, which are in an inseparable cycle, to whose destructive direction humanity leads. The daily struggles of the young musicians from the Drop Down Community to reduce the use of plastic and their intolerance of killing nature have inspired this project.
Through the power of their art, the talented artists are working on creating a society that values the vital resources. Within the project, the successful film composer Ivo Paunov created the music for the cycle The Five Elements . Five music videos are in production for the music cycle right now, presenting real environmental problems, through which to alert the society. The visual design of the project is in the hands of the established director Vasil Karkelanov.
The project “The Five Elements” is implemented with the support of the program “Music” at the Ministry of Culture!
The project “The Five Elements and the Human” is implemented with the support of the program “Socially Engaged Arts” at the National Fund “Culture”!
Ivo Paunov creates award-winning works of music Twilight Express (2009), Three Sisters and Andrew (2009), Three Mothers (2010) and The Boy Who Was King (2011). In 2012, Ivo Paunov received a prestigious award for music to The Pin (2012). He also wrote the music for the highly acclaimed film Touch Me Not (Golden Bear, Berlinale 2018).
Ivo is also writing music for small ensembles and electro-acoustic works, including Extinction Story and Epilogue . In the last year he recorded for the Bulgarian National Radio two plays with the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio and two a cappella works with the folk choir The Great Bulgarian Voices.
Vassil Karkelanov is known as a producer, director, photographer and cameraman of documentary and art productions: Fires of Devotion , Lily – Lily Ivanova in Olympia , The Seventh Day , as well as on TV shows such as Nebivalitsi on bTV, Naked Angels on Nova TV, Seventh Heaven on TV 7, On the edge on bTV, Skillfully on bTV, Confidential on Nova TV.
His realizations are the concert of Lili Ivanova in the National Palace of Culture, Lili Ivanova in Arena Armeec Hall , the opera performance Raina Kabaivanska presents the stars of the opera , as well as a number of advertising and music videos. He shooted for editions such as EVA, ELLE, GLAMOR, MAXIM. He has over 130 sessions for PLAYBOY, he made the visions for some of the brightest advertising campaigns in Bulgaria.
Vasil Karkelanov is the founder and producer of ArtLife – an online media for culture and art, which supports some of the most valuable cultural projects in Bulgaria.
Some of his latest projects (2019 – 2020) are: Let’s listen to cinema – a concert by Hilda Kazasyan, a concert by Lili Ivanova in Sofia, where he is the director of the show and the documentary film material.
Over the last 10 years, Petya Tsvetanova has been at the heart of a number of projects in the field of classical music in Bulgaria. In the period 2011 – 2017 she is part of the team of “Music House BNR” and is responsible for the realization of the concert seasons of the six ensembles of the BNR, as well as for the joint concerts between the institution and the Sofia Philharmonic, BNT and National Palace of Culture.
Petya’s activities are multifaceted and also include the creation and implementation of music education projects, teaching and research. During the period 2014 – 2015 she specialized at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and in 2018 she defended her PhD in the history of music at the National Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov”, Sofia. Since 2017 she has been an assistant teacher of music history at the same institution, and since 2019 – a chief assistant. In the period 2017 – until 2020 he is a music consultant for the show “Music, Music” on BNT, and in 2020 he is part of the team of MOTIF Concerts by Modo. For the last 5 years Petya has been working together with the association for art and culture Music Play.
Petya Tsvetanova is the PR of the Drop Down Community and the project director of their last two projects: “The Five Elements” and “The Five Elements and the Human”.
Alex Atanassov is the core of Drop Down Community. He is a young and creative musician with dozens of awards from national and international competitions behind him. He graduated from the National Academy of Music with a master’s degree in “Classical Double Bass”. Only 25 years old, part of his biography are the orchestras of the New Symphony Orchestra, Classic FM, Academic Symphony Orchestra, Pioneer Youth Philharmonic, Balkan Youth Symphony Orchestra, Genesis Orchestra, the National Music Theatre, Sofia Philharmonic and many others.
Alex’s interest goes beyond classical music and he is part of the bands of Milenita, Lily Geleva and Martin Kostadinov, Acoustic Soul, Latida (ex. Funky Miracle). He also composes contemporary and popular music and is part of the beatmaking collective INVOLVED.
Alex Atanassov is the manager of Drop Down Community orchestra and is the initiator and producer of the projects: “Five Elements” and “Five Elements and the Human”.
Drop Down Community (DDC) is a new independent string orchestra made up of young and talented people led by the love for music. The new formation, which aims to bring the classical orchestra to the rhythm of the XXI century and to strengthen the bridge between the young audience and the classical stage, debuted in early autumn 2019 with a concert in the cave Ledenika, part of the festival Music in the cave .
In the beginning of 2020 DDC in collaboration with SAVA and Xonic (Lilo Petrov) filled one of the biggest clubs in Sofia EXE Club , presenting entirely original music in the concert Prism: Strings of the New 20’s . In the summer of 2020, they were invited to be part of the Mozart Festival – Pravets festival, where they performed the world premiere of the Chamber Symphony for String Orchestra, written especially for them by Rumen Boyadzhiev-son. In November 2020 they managed to give a concert in the hall Bulgaria as part of the project “Hope through music”, produced by the Sofia Philharmonic and carried out with the kind assistance of the Ministry of Culture.
Viktor Traykov is the concertmaster of the low strings in our orchestra. He has played in some of the most prominent chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras in Bulgaria and Germany. Today he's a member of the quartet "Credo", trio "Artes", New Symphony Orchestra.
Ilina Ilieva is a laureate of many competitions in the country and abroad. She has given solo recitals in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Greece. She has performed as a soloist with the Baden-Baden Philharmoniker, the Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble, the BNR Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Symphony Orchestra, the ASO and others. She is the principal of the viola group in our orchestra.
Petya Tsvetanova has been part of our family since the first steps of the Orchestra. Besides doing the PR for Drop Down Community, she is the head coordinator of the "Five Elements" and "Five Elements and the Human" projects.
Milen Maximov is the concertmaster of the ensemble. In the fall of 2019, together with Alex Atanassov, he founded the Drop Down Community. We asked him what his personal motives were for joining our mission.
30.07.2021
The founder of Gorata.Bg - Nikola Rakhnev, organized a blood donation campaign on 30.07.2021 to save the life of a child in need. Many volunteers responded to the National Center for Transfusion Hematology and helped save lives, and we at Drop Down Community became part of the campaign.
14.07.2021
Drop Down Community Summer Tour 2021 ❤️❤️❤️ We are expecting you: 24.07 - Sozopol @ solinaria.fest 25.07 - Balchik - Balchik Classic Days 20.08 - Pravets @mozartfestivalpravets Tickets for the events can be found on our website, as well as in Eventim.bg Happy summer!
06.07.2021
The problem of drinking water quality is global and more and more palpable for all the inhabitants of the planet, so it is not surprising that its deepening shortage is becoming one of the largest and most serious modern world problems ever. At present, about 2.2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water, and as many as 4.2 billion, or 55% of the world's population, do not have adequate sanitation. What all the "hot spots" on the world map have in common is that they require immediate decisions and actions.
30.06.2021
A wonderful initiative of Gorata.bg, which turns dog life into a song! The shelter for our four-legged friends in Veliko Tarnovo will be transformed with 150 oak saplings, which will be planted in the empty backyard of the dog shelter. In this way, the enthusiastic benefactors hope that the residents of the shelter will feel better and the place will become a full-fledged medical center.
20.06.2021
Drop Down Community took part in the afforestation of 1200 saplings in the village of Brakyovtsi. This is part of one of the initiatives of our partners from Gorata.Bg. After this act, the trees planted by their initiatives became 903,000, and the goal of 1 million new trees will be achieved this fall, promises the largest volunteer organization in Bulgaria, which plants forests and trees.
17.06.2021
Our partners from Green Peace shared the results of the #ChooseWater initiative. Clean-ups were organized in different parts of the country, and several events were held in Sofia, Stara Zagora, Silistra and Ticha Dam.
10.06.2021
With this message the mayor of the French village of Los en Guell addressed the Municipality of Pernik and the Bulgarian coal regions, during a meeting held online at the initiative of Greenpeace - Bulgaria, the Embassy of France and the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria. At a time when Bulgaria is working on the Territorial Plans for a Fair Transition and planning investments for recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, the experience of mayors and municipalities such as Jean-François Caron and the city of Los en Goel can be a valuable source of ideas and inspiration in the Bulgarian context.
21.05.2021
Become part of the latest ecologically oriented project of the orchestra "Five Elements"! You can support us and treat us to a virtual "coffee" on the Ko-fi platform and get a special prize :)
20.05.2021
Immerse yourself in the world of bees on May 22, with the help of "Real Honey" and the "Save the Bees Foundation". The all-day event will be held in South Park, Sofia, starting at 10:00 am. Get ready for sweet surprises and fun, for people from all ages.
22.04.2021
A big highlight for the musicians from Drop Down Community is the release of their first EP! You can now hear the music cycle "Five Elements", composed by Ivo Paunov in the online platforms of Spotify, Apple Music, DistroKid, iTunes, Deezer and Amazon.
18.04.2021
On April 18, Gorata.bg donated more than 10,000 trees! Forests are extremely important for maintaining the balance of the planet's ecosystem. That is why the activity of our partners from the gorata.bg is so important. In recent years, they have planted more than 1.4 million trees and saved many forests.
The upcoming project of the orchestra is called “Five Elements”. It’s aim is to raise awareness for global enviromental issues, such as Global warming, air pollution, the exessive use of water resources, deforestation and most importantly – the overuse of plastic.
We need your support so we could cover the expenses for the video production of the project and its distribution. We have already recorded the audio material and it will be available soon on Spotify, Itunes and other platforms.
