A twist of fate was set in motion when Gergana Arigova stepped off her 20-hour flight back from Bulgaria on a late night in November.

Alarmed by the frantic vibrating of her cell phone, she could only marvel at how fast her inbox could fill after being back in the country for only a matter of minutes.

“I just thought, ‘This is so strange! Who could this be?'”said Arigova.

An hour would pass before she would listen to the message, which was from a number she didn’t recognize.

As it turns out, Linda Shay, a conductor for the Pikes Peak Philharmonic, had left the message begging Arigova to replace a pianist who had cancelled his performance in an upcoming concert.

The piece, Mendel’s Sonata in G-minor, happened to be one that Arigova had been practicing for months at the Lamont School of Music at DU.

“My first thought was no, I am way too tired. I cannot play music now!” Fortunately for Arigova, the concert was not until February, so this seemingly accidental phone message would result in an opportunity to play with a professional orchestra.

Arigova is a second year student at the Lamont School of Music who moved to the United States from Bulgaria.

Before coming to Denver, Arigova had never traveled out of the country, had little experience with English and had never performed a live concert before. “This was my first big concert. Before this, I have only done recitals,” said Arigova. Now 22, Arigova has been playing the piano since she was five years old.

Recognizing at an early age that she wanted to pursue a career in music, she began to research music schools in the United States. “I really liked the Website,” said Arigova of the Lamont sSchool site, which became her top choice for undergraduate music schools in the U.S. “So, I sent in my CD, and they accepted me.”

The modest Arigova would later reveal that she was not only accepted to Lamont, but she was also given a full scholarship and is a recipient of the Daniel L. Ritchie Scholarship. Arigova was thrown into rehearsals where she was suddenly the center of a 25-person music piece- a far cry from private recitals in small auditoriums.

At Lamont, Arigova had been working with Professor Steven Mayer, with whom she had been learning Mendel’s Sonata as part of her regular studies.

Mayer received a call from Shay, a Lamont alumna, asking him if he knew of any students who might know the sonata and would be able to play it with an orchestra for a public concert. Mayer gave her Arigova’s name and number and ensured that she would be more than capable of playing the piece.

“During rehearsal, I would talk with Linda, and we ended up having the same first music teacher and we lived in the same apartment building in the very same room,” said Arigova. The more the two talked, the more it seemed, that Arigova was destined to play in the concert.

“It was so weird. We had so much in common,” said Arigova.

Over 100 people attended the concert in Colorado Springs, including several of Arigova’s friends and professors. The piece Arigova played with the orchestra was over 30 minutes long.

“At the time you are not tired, because all that you are thinking about is the music,” said Arigova.

“But afterwards I was exhausted!” Arigova received a standing ovation at the conclusion of the piece and adoring fans approached her afterward asking for autographs and pictures.

“I felt like a celebrity,” she said of her experience. Not only did she debut her almost-famous signature, she was also asked to play a solo concert at the church some time in the future.

Shay was also pleased with the performance and says that she will keep tabs on her progress through Lamont, inviting her to guest-star again when the opportunity arises.

“The whole night was so wonderful and so inspiring. I will never forget it,” Arigova said.