Atanas Ourkouzounov is one of most interesting personalities in Bulgarian contemporary music. Guitar player and composer with a rich musical background, he is considered one of the main authors in the domain of the new generation’s music for guitar.

The wide inspiration of his musical language is the result of subtle use of the forms, an endless and original rhythmical search and a colourwork that leads the guitar to explore new territories and sonorities.

Atanas Ourkouzounov grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he began guitar studies with Dimitar Doitchinov. Starting from 1992, he continued his studies in France with Arnaud Dumond, Alexandre Lagoya, and Olivier Chassain. He studied guitar, chamber music, analysis, ethnomusicology, and improvisation at the Paris Conservatory and graduated in 1997 with a unanimous vote the first prize in guitar.

As composer he has been awarded with several prizes (« Michele Pittaluga - Città di Alessandria » - Italy, 1997 - ; « Paolo Barsacchi » - Italy, 1997 - ; « Il fronimo - Suvini Zerboni » - Italy, 1998 - ; « Ciudad de Montevideo » - Uruguay, 1998 - ; « Carrefour mondial des guitares » - Martinique, 1998-).

Ourkouzounov has written over 100 works for guitar-solos, duos, trios, quartets, instrumental ensembles, and four concerti-a number of which have won important prizes, and a majority of which have been published by leading publishers (Doberman-Yppan, Henry Lemoine).

Several internationally recognized performers have played his works. Among them Zoran Dukic, Denis Azabagic, Scott Tennant, Shin-ichi Fukuda, Alberto Vingiano, Eduardo Isaac, Pablo Marquez, Antigoni Goni, Duo Gruber-Maklar, Miscelanea Guitar Quartet, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Thibault Cauvin, Dimitri Illarionov, Jérémy Jouve , Gabriel Bianco, Carlos Perez, Juan Carlos Laguna, Thomas Muller-Pering, Duo Palissandre, Ensemble Nomad, Patrick Kearney, etc.

Atanas Ourkouzounov performs widely as a soloist and with the Japanese flutist Mie Ogura. In addition to eight CDs on which Ourkouzounov plays, more than 60 CDs of his music performed by others are currently available.

Ourkouzounov is also in demand as a teacher and juror at conferences and conservatories in Europe, the USA, and Japan and he holds a full-time position at the Conservatoire “Maurice Ravel” in Paris.

Born in Japan 1973, Mie Ogura started to play the flute at age 7. In 1989, she finished her studies at the Takamatsu Music High school in Japan and obtained the first prize in the National students' Flute Competition in Osaka.

In 1994, Mie Ogura moved to France,and in 1999 graduated with Diplume Superieur from Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris under Pierre-Yves Artaud and Sophie Cherrier. She then obtained an improvisation diploma under the tutelage of Alain Savouret. She also studied baroque flute with Pierre Sechet, and jazz improvisation with Glenn Ferris, Pascal Gaubert, and Jean-Charles Richard, as well as Indian music with Patrick Moutal.

In 2001 she obtained a scholarship from the Academia Musicale de Siena(Italy) under Aurele Nicolet(flute) and Alain Meunier(chamber music), and worked with the composer Franco Donatoni.

Since 1995 Mie Ogura has appeared regularly as a soloist and chamber musician with different ensembles and orchestras; among others, Ensemble L'Itineraire, Ensemble Entretemps, and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. She is the Flute Professor at the Conservatoire Jacques Ibert in Paris.