site.btaCairo Opera House Concertmaster Tsvetelina Krasteva and Her Adventure in Egypt

Tsvetelina Krasteva, the Concertmaster of the Cairo House Opera, is one of more than 40 Bulgarian violinists who became Consertmasters of some of the leading orchestras across the world. Speaking to Ekaterina Antonova of BTA, Krasteva shared the story of her adventurous arrival in Egypt in 2002.

“My coming to Cairo was truly an adventure. I never imagined that I would come, stay, live and work here”, she said.

Before moving to Egypt’s capital, Krasteva was a member of an orchestra in Ruse (Bulgaria, on the Danube River) when her countryman Ivan Filev, the conductor of the Cairo Opera Orchestra at the time, did an audition in the Bulgarian city.

“All three of us who turned up for the audition passed but it was only me who dared to fly off for Cairo. It was not an easy decision to make, but I told myself “Oh, what the hell, let me try it “. I needed a change”, she said.

The violinist has never been to Egypt before that. “It was shocking. I arrived in the middle of the night. They picked me up with a ramshackle pickup truck with no lights. The streets were crowded, there were traffic jams everywhere”, Krasteva told BTA.

She admits that the first thought running through her head was that she wanted to go back to Bulgaria. “Thankfully, I was not alone but with a colleague of mine - a percussionist from Sofia. He looked around and said: “Actually, it is kind of nice here”. His words comforted me and then I quickly got used to the country”, Krasteva added.

The violinist has quickly found that there is a large group of Bulgarian colleagues of hers in Cairo. It turned out that most of the musicians in the Cairo Opera Orchestra are foreigners - Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles. The conductor, Ivan Filev, is Bulgarian, too.

In Egypt, Krasteva found her passion for teaching. Also, this is how she met her future husband, an Egyptian guitarist. A few years after her arrival in Cairo, Krasteva became an Assistant Concertmaster and later - a Concertmaster.

As a Concertmaster, her first performance was the Swan lake ballet under the baton of Nayer Nagui. It remains her favourite performance, as well as that of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, Puccini’s operas under the baton of Italian conductor David Crescenzi, and opera galas with Elio Orciuolo.

A concert with Jose Carreras was yet another exciting moment for Krasteva. “I used to be a musical guest in the Cyprus Chamber Orchestra. It was the summer of 2010. I travelled from Cairo to Cyprus, we played the concert with Jose Carreras, and it was an amazing experience”, she told BTA.

In April 2021, the Bulgarian Concertmaster took part in the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade, a spectacular ceremony during which twenty-two mummies belonging to Kings and Queens of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt were relocated from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat.

Having lived in Cairo long enough, Tsvetelina Krasteva believes that the warmth and kindness of the local people are among the best things about Egypt.

"Egyptians generously give out love and always manage to tell you a few good words, no matter what. They have a common expression in Egyptian – “Nawarti Misr”, which means “You light up Egypt”. It is so kind. There are not many places where you can hear that", the Bulgarian violinist told BTA.

Furthermore, Krasteva was really impressed by all the outdoor tables full of dishes which Egyptians traditionally set during the holy month of Ramadan.

“There are long tables full of warm food all over the streets. They are meant for the poor, but everybody is most welcome – it does not matter whether you are poor or rich, what your skin colour or religion is”, she explained.

In Egypt, Tsvetelina Krasteva feels at home, but Bulgaria is always closest to her heart. She comes back home every summer for a couple of months. “I had to leave Bulgaria to find out how much I love it. Everything that happens in Bulgaria concerns mе. In the future, I would like to see my country more prosperous and the people - happier”, she told BTA.

The Bulgarian musician also works on chamber concerts with Ukrainian piano player Elena Grechenko. Their new performance, titled “Violin and Piano from the Baroque Period till the Present Day” can be watched on the Youtube channel of the American University in Cairo Department of the Arts.