The Off the Beaten Path Festival was founded in 2018 by distinguished Bulgarian musicians as a platform for chamber music and cultural exchange in the Bulgarian countryside. Now in its eighth edition, the festival has built a reputation for programs that pair world premieres and collaborations with living composers alongside rarely heard works from the chamber music repertoire.
Over the years, festival musicians have worked with composers as Dobrinka Tabakova, Kenji Bunch, Valentin Silvestrov, Peter Kerkelov, Lora Al Ahmad, and Svetlin Hristov, and have presented Bulgarian premieres of works by Amanda Harberg, Paul Schoenfield, Jessie Montgomery, and Henri Lazaroff. Upcoming collaborations include commissions, performances, and residencies with David Ludwig, Penka Kouneva, Peter Kerkelov, Jake Heggie, Hannah Ishizaki, Dobrinka Tabakova and Lera Auerbach.
Beyond the Concerts
The festival supports a range of ongoing initiatives in the region, collectively known as The Path is Yours — a suite of programs that includes music education, a young composers' residency, and a charitable society dedicated to the renovation and maintenance of the Svetlina Community Center in Kovachevitsa.
Commitment to Community and the Environment
Since 2022, the festival has directed a portion of its ticket proceeds toward causes that extend beyond the concert hall. In partnership with Gorata.bg and European Festival Forest, the festival has supported tree-planting initiatives across Bulgaria and in Iceland. Cleanup campaigns in the festival’s seat Kovachevitsa with Clean and Green Bulgaria have been part of the program since the same year.
In 2023, the festival launched an annual recycling awareness campaign in collaboration with Bulekopak, and in 2025 established a new partnership with the educational organization Teach for Bulgaria.
The Foundation
The Off the Beaten Path Foundation was established by pianist Lora Tchekoratova in Sofia in 2017. It brings together a community of like-minded people who share a commitment to nature, culture, and the arts in all their forms. Based in New York, Lora Tchekoratova works on creating cultural bridges between the United States and Europe and creating opportunities for international collaborations in small picturesque parts of her native Bulgaria.
