Co-founded 2013 · San Diego · 2013, 2014, 2016–2019
Balkan Fest – Europa Roots
In 2012 we visited a flamenco festival that our friend Basilio Ceravolo has hosted for about two decades, at his estate in a hidden canyon in the heart of San Diego. World-class performers and the audience mix like one big family at a village fair. Petro Dushkov, Maria Bobeva, Basilio Ceravolo and Maria Breshkova decided to bring that model to the Balkans.
The idea was a mini Koprivshtitsa: a small Bulgarian island where young and old, artists and fans live together for a long weekend in late May. Maria Bobeva was artistic director and turned the canyon into a Bulgarian village. Basilio and Maria Breshkova ran logistics and volunteers. Everyone attending volunteered too, in the kitchen, at registration and on clean-up. Guests took dance classes with leading Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian and Turkish choreographers, plus workshops in Troyan pottery, embroidery, kuker-mask making, and weaving on a custom-built Chiprovtsi loom. The location stayed secret and was revealed bit by bit in a private group, so only the truly curious made it down the rabbit hole.
Tagline: Different Tribes, One Spirit! Presented by Basilio, PCHELA and HitterPetter. One edition brought together three of Bulgaria's great gaida players, Vasil Bebelekov, Petar Yanev and Ivan Varimezov, with the voices of Valya Balkanska, Maria Bebelekova and Tsvetanka Varimezova.
March 23, 2019 · Basilio's, San Diego
Kuker Fest California
A gathering of kukeri "from all lands," organized by the Kuker Crew and led by Petro Dushkov. Elka and Dancho Ruskov of the Bulgarian Cultural and Heritage Center of Seattle supported it, along with Eli Yordanova, founder of the Festival of Bulgarian Arts in Toronto. The program featured Dimitar Minkov of the Dimitrovche ensemble (Toronto), Konstantin "Kotseto" Marinov of Chicago's Vereya festival, pianist and composer Milen Kirov, Donka and Nikolay Kolev, Stoyan Kostov "Pileto" and Rumen Shopov.
Supported by the Bulgarian Cultural and Heritage Center of Seattle, the Herb Alpert Music Center (LACC), Bulgarian Traditions NPC-Chicago, ElArte-Toronto, the Consulate General of Bulgaria in L.A. and the National Culture Fund of Bulgaria. Powered by the Kuker art car, the day included a Kuker lab and theatre for kids and adults, a kukeri seminar, mask and embroidery workshops, a campfire jam and an evening gala concert with DEXTЪR, the Varimezovs and the Horo-San Band.
The headliner was electronic producer Ivan Shopov with the vocal duo Avigeya. Lora Shopova's visuals were projection-mapped onto fabric sails built by Filip Petkov (DJ PHEEL). It all played out in a 300-seat amphitheater that Basilio built by hand from recycled concrete blocks.
2018 & 2024 · Kirkland Performance Center, WA
Bulgarian Christmas concerts, Seattle
Scripted and directed by HitterPetter for the Bulgarian Cultural and Heritage Center of Seattle, with support from 4Culture.
Silent Night, Bright Night (December 15, 2018) featured Maria Bobeva, violinist Svet Radoslavov and Kostadin Marinov, with Bulgarian Voices of Seattle, Radost Ensemble, Hopa Trop, Medena Pitka and Seattle Cheta.
Paint Me a Song (Нарисувай ми песен, December 14, 2024) was the Christmas concert of Seattle's Bulgarian community, with special guests the Wladigeroff Brothers alongside local and visiting artists.
Concerts & tours produced
Bulgarian artists on U.S. stages
Concerts and North American tour stops for some of Bulgaria's most exciting musicians, including Theodosii Spassov and BALKANSKY, the project of Ivan Shopov, Ivo Hristov and Theodosii Spassov, who played Molly Malone's in L.A. with Orkestar Mézé on December 4, 2015. Highlights include the Theodosii Spassov Quintet in Hollywood (January 21, 2018) and the Wladigeroff Brothers, "Vienna's jazz vagabonds" (May 11, 2025), both at the LACC Herb Alpert Music Center in Los Angeles.
- Valya Balkanska & Petar Yanev
- Theodosii Spassov Quintet
- BALKANSKY
- Oratnitsa
- Ivan Shopov & Avigeya
- Wladigeroff Brothers
- Milen Kirov
- Orkestar Mézé
Longtime collaborators · Los Angeles
Milen Kirov & Orkestar Mézé
Pianist, composer and educator Milen Kirov is one of HitterPetter's closest creative partners. Born in Plovdiv into a musical family, he holds a doctorate from CalArts and a master's in composition from CSU Northridge, and teaches piano, composition and theory at Los Angeles City College. His music sits where Western classical, American jazz and Bulgarian traditional music meet. He has played and recorded with Perry Farrell, Money Mark and James Gadson, and released the solo piano album Spatium in 2022.
In 2011 he founded Orkestar Mézé, an 11-piece "peasant funk" band with a six-piece horn section and members from six countries. It mixes American funk and soul with Bulgarian odd meters. Their second album features Ellis Hall of Tower of Power and Theodosii Spassov.
With HitterPetter, Milen composed the original score for Audition and performed at Kuker Fest California, and on December 4, 2015 Orkestar Mézé shared the stage at Molly Malone's in Los Angeles with BALKANSKY (Theodosii Spassov, Ivan Shopov and Ivo Hristov), Ellis Hall and Miroslav Tadić.
Often with the Consulate General of Bulgaria, Los Angeles
Film screenings
Screenings of new Bulgarian cinema for Southern California audiences, many with the filmmakers in person for a Q&A.
- The Judgment, Bulgaria's Oscar contender · open screening & Q&A · November 14, 2015
- Holiday Makers (Летовници) · holiday screening, Irvine · November 22, 2017
- Audition · home-turf screenings in Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco · February–May 2018
- Omnipresent by Ilian Djevelekov · screening & Q&A, Art Theatre Long Beach · November 10, 2018
- Women Do Cry by Mina Mileva & Vesela Kazakova · with BACES, SEEFest and the Consulate · Lumiere Cinema, Beverly Hills · March 20, 2022
Stage & page
Theater, readings & art nights
Bulgarian theater on L.A. stages: Marriage by Ads (Женитба по обяви), a comedy with Valentin Tanev, Maria Bobeva and Toncho Tokmakchiev, presented with BG Voice at The Colony Theatre (September 21, 2023); The Road to Aphrodite with Boyka Velkova (Long Beach, October 22, 2016); and The Spider (Паякът) by Yordan Slaveykov and Dimitar Kasabov, with Penko Gospodinov and Anastasia Lyutova, at the Dorie Theater at The Complex in Hollywood (February 17, 2017).
Plus book readings and signings, such as Zachary Karabashliev's 18% Gray at The Last Bookstore in downtown L.A. (December 3, 2013), and art nights like the Bulgarian Art Walk at the Croatian Cultural Center of Greater Los Angeles (June 27, 2015).
Since January 2012 · Orange County
D.E.B.A. dance club
D.E.B.A. ("Dance Ethnos – Bulgarian Aerobics," or as we like to call it, Bulgarian Folk Aerobics) started half as a joke. It was a weekly folk-dance night Petro and Maria set up for friends, billed as a workout. It became the seed of everything that followed and connected the team with dancers, musicians and teachers across North America. Still going strong, with master classes from prominent guest artists, choreographers and educators: Petur Iliev, Gergana Panova, Elena Dimitrova, Daniela Ivanova-Nyberg, Prof. Anton Andonov, Prof. Nikolay Tsvetkov, Konstantin "Kotseto" Marinov, Tania Dimitrova, Iliana Bozhanova and Todor Yankov, Nina Kavardjikova, Diane Baker, Jaap Leegwater and many more.
