Soundtracks Talk

Internationally renowned conductor and Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov helms the Orchestra and its popular June performing arts celebration – The Princeton Festival. Respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike, he has established himself as a conductor with considerable national and international presence. In addition to leading the PSO, Mr. Milanov is the music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra in Ljubljana. During his eleven-year tenure with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Milanov conducted more than 200 performances. In 2015, he completed a 15-year tenure as music director of the nationally recognized training orchestra Symphony in C in New Jersey and in 2013 a 17-year tenure with the New Symphony Orchestra in his native city of Sofia, Bulgaria. He was named Bulgaria’s Musician of the Year in 2005.

Mariana Karpatova has been recognized as a specialist in training singers for contemporary and classical music, in both the youth and advanced professional categories. She has maintained a private practice teaching singing since 2002, and besides FDU, she is currently on the vocal teaching staff at the Jewish Community Center’s School of Drama in Tenafly. She is a frequent adjudicator on the panel of the Violetta DuPont Vocal Competition held by Opera at Florham. Ms. Karpatova is also a renowned opera singer and has appeared with major U.S. opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Sarasota Opera, Baltimore Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Sofia National Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and performed as Florence Pike in Albert Herring at the 2022 Princeton Festival. In concert and recital, she has performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Mexico National Symphony and others. Ms Karpatova is a graduate of the Juilliard School’s Professional Studies Program and the Juilliard Opera Center, and a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) since 2012.