People from Sofia

"[She] played with drive, aplomb, and sensitivity throughout … this performance will take a place amongst the best performances of my music."

"Exhibited a rare combination of emotional involvement and profound calmness on stage."

"Artistic, with high sensitivity and imagination, Anna-Maria managed the difficult program."

"Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean is flying amazingly headlong to the performance peaks. Overwhelming, incisive images, kaleidoscope of colors, flexible technique."

"Demonstrated mastery of the instrument, deep musical insights and stylistic understanding … extraordinary."

""The talent is passion and intellect" says the famous pianist Heinrich Neuhaus — with this mind we can define the art of the young harpist — Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean."

"[She] is a brilliant harpist … communicates marvelously with the audience."

"Triumphed ...the concert was a rare pleasure."

"What is the basis of our population at the moment — one million Roma, 700 000 Turks, 2,5 million retirees. This is what GERB is facing. And what about you — a million-and-a-half who ran away?... The human material that we are left with as voters and as a pool for recruiting staff — it is really not that big. It is easy to say: 'we rely on you'."

"Bulgarians then went on strikes, made barricades and burned tyres while others were working. Now its is we who are working, while other countries burn their own cities and cause problems for themselves"

"You are all Prime Minister candidates, Ministers, Vice Ministers, but you are all now listening to me. Not because I am physically stronger, but because I have proven my wisdom throughout the years."

"Your king is entirely too neutral to suit us. Anyway, there is no place for kings in the new European order."

"Every child and adult should have the skills and the tools to respond to the challenges of the world today and make the most of the opportunities that are available."

"The award of the Peace Prize to these two ardent defenders of education sends out a resounding message to the world on the importance of education for building peaceful and sustainable societies."

"People are more connected than ever before, but inequalities and misunderstandings remain deep within and among societies. Human capacity is the ultimate renewable energy, but it faces obstacles everywhere. UNESCO’s role lies in bridging the gaps in global governance by fostering international cooperation in education, the sciences, culture, and communication."

"I'm surprised that in the era when we are talking about cryptocurrency and blockchain and self driving cars, we're still talking about equality between men and women."

"From a young age, I was instinctively drawn to stories of escape, adventure and the high seas. It wasn’t just that I was living in a society where I felt trapped, it was also because I was a reader and a dreamer. In retrospect, no matter where I grew up I probably would have dreamt of escape. But the fact that we were living behind the iron curtain fuelled that escapism."

"The trauma of half a century of social life based on lies is going to take several generations to heal, if it heals at all."

"It seems to me that untold histories that come from a very pure place of suffering and survival contain truth. Everything else is subject to question, really. Anything that comes to us through an official source—especially an official source attached to a national or religious agenda, or any of those other identity politics that seem to bedevil the world at the moment—is questioned. I felt that the voices I was hearing, the places from which these stories came to me, were genuine and, therefore, very precious. The stories in themselves contained both the questions and the answers about identity, or about what borders do to people and how they survive."

"Traumas, or very powerful, primal experiences, especially when they’re experienced by large numbers of people, have a tendency to affect everything they touch. At that border, it wasn’t just one person who died. It was many, untold numbers—mouths full of earth. I think when you have a massive collective experience like that, the trauma remains in the earth. I think the earth has a memory, trees have a memory, rivers have a memory. If we’re a little bit open to it, we pick it up…"

"We strive to convey to the Bulgarian society those human values which have been the foundation of a united Europe on its beginnings, which derive from and contain in themselves the force of Christianity."

"Ecumenism, both in theory and in practice, was a living reality during the era of communism."

"Everyone makes mistakes, and they do things for righteous reasons, even if [it’s] not the right thing to do. But, at the same time, I always think it’s best to lead with honesty. Starting any relationship on a lie is not the best foundation to grow up on. Everybody catfishes to one degree or another, though. Everyone’s putting forward the version of themselves that they once were, or they want to be in the future. [It’s] this glossy, perfect version that isn’t real. That’s why they call it a honeymoon phase."

"Obviously everyone has flaws, but, more than anything, it’s not about finding the perfect person — it’s about finding the perfect person for you."

"How do you choose? You choose because of who your heart and your soul connects with more, not the physical appearance that’s gonna fade eventually. It’s all about the person who is going to make you laugh until you cry for the rest of your life, the person you can be your most authentic self with. That’s key, in my opinion."

"Let the universe bring what is meant to bring to you. Don’t hold on to things that aren’t meant to be with you. If you’re on a dating app and you’re putting yourself out there, put yourself out there, but any kind of desperate energy can be felt on either side — especially if you’re trying to do [it] just for the holidays. That doesn’t feel very genuine. If you’re looking for someone for the holidays, specifically, then that probably means you need to call your therapist and do some work on yourself. That’s another thing that I’ve personally been working on for a long time: trying to bring the focus back to myself and be whole in myself, with or without a partner. In order to be with someone else, you need to be there for yourself, first, and be content with who you are. You have to be complete in yourself."

"I really want to immerse myself in the world. In terms of dialogue and writing characters and visuals, it needed to come from me, especially for the first one. I’m not closed off to the idea in the future. I’ve been writing a lot of other things as well. None of them have gotten set yet, but I’ve sold a couple of projects, as a writer. Writing has always been an interest of mine as well. It really just helps you, when you’re the one who wrote it, bringing it to life feels much more colorful and multi-faceted. You really understand that story, you know what you wanna get across, and your vision just feels more full, in my opinion, but mind you, I’ve only ever had this one experience. I can only judge it from this one time."

"When you’re directing something, you have to look at the bigger picture and what the goal is, what the story is that you’re trying to tell, and the emotion that you want to convey. When you change the lens that you’re looking from, it changes the type of performance or the take you might choose. I think I’m more forgiving now because I understand that a little bit better."

"I’ve been producing behind the scenes for a little while now, so that has always been part of my brain and process. If I can add value and be integral in a project or an experience, I definitely love producing. But now that I’ve directed, I look forward to new opportunities to get to do it again. We’ll see what comes next. I definitely look forward to doing it again, for sure."

"I do feel like changing your aesthetic can be therapeutic in a weird way. I mean, it’s odd to even say that out loud because your aesthetic is superficial in so many ways, but it can also affect the way you feel. I mean, I know for a fact that when I cut my hair shorter two years ago, it was almost like I was cutting off old energy."

"I think when I hit 27, my priorities shifted. It was one of those things that I’d been warned about. People told me that when you’re younger, you don’t really have a concept of time. You think the world is your oyster, but after a certain amount of time, you realize that it is finite, and what have you done up until this point? Was it something important to you? What have you achieved? What do you want to achieve? Where are you in that path to achieving it? Once my priorities shifted, I realized that I didn’t have as much time. I started to realize, what was I doing? Was it making me happy? If it wasn’t making me happy, then I don’t need to do it. No one’s forcing me to be here. I should be spending my time with things that make me smile, make me laugh, make me fulfilled. And so as soon as I realized that staying out a little bit later would make me feel not so great in the morning, I’d rather go to bed. I’d rather hang out with my dog and watch a movie and do things that I want to do instead of waste my life and my time."

"There are toxic people who have come into my life before. I feel like when you’re younger, you kind of don’t really realize it. But I surround myself with people who are very blunt and honest and real. And when somebody comes in who doesn’t share that authenticity, you can smell it from a mile away. And so, I trust my friends to tell me if I’m not seeing something or if someone’s not being genuine or doesn’t really want to be my friend for the right reasons."

"I think it’s amazing that there’s this new media that allows you to be more connected with the people that support you. Without their support I couldn’t exist."

"I was a rhythmic and athletic gymnast for a little while. Then, when I quit gymnastics, I fell in love with yoga. So sometimes I think I’d like to open up a yoga studio."