A premiere of HIB Project jazz band will be held at 6pm on July 5 at Boris Hristov musical centre in Sofia with the guest participation of foreign musicians.

The organiser of the project, saxophone player Dimitur Lyolev, has invited friends, fellow graduates and students from Groningen Conservatory to participate together in the fourth July Jazz Smolyan 2008 international ethno-jazz festival. Before appearing on the festival, the musicians will be performing for the first time on the stage of Boris Hristov musical centre.

Musicians from three countries, the Netherlands, Italy and Bulgaria, are part of the band. The idea of this international cooperation is that musicians will present a musical theme from their native country.

The audience to the concert can enjoy performances by the Dutch musicians Ben van Gelder (alt saxophone), winner of the Princess Christina Award in 2004 and the Deloitte Jazz Award in 2007, and Tony Roe (piano), who is finishing his education in Groningen Conservatory.

Together with them on stage will perform Italian bassist Massimiliano Rolff and Bulgarian musicians Nikola Goryalov (drums) and Dimitur Lyolev (alt saxophone), who was part of the Brainstorm fusion band in the 1990s together with Minko Lambov, Borislav Petrov and other musicians.

The performers have been trained by distinguished veteran jazz musicians such as Ferdinand Povel, Albert Beltman, Dick Oatts, Lincoln Goines, Don Bradon and Brian Lynch.