Plovdiv once-bright greens and blues. Torah scrolls are kept in the gilded Aron-ha-Kodesh. The Plovdiv Drama Theatre is a successor of the first professional theatre group in Bulgaria founded in 1881. The Plovdiv Puppet Theatre, founded in 1948, remains one of the leading institutions in this genre. The Plovdiv Opera was established in 1953. Another pillar of Plovdiv's culture is the Philharmonic, founded in 1945. Soloists such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Boukov, and Mincho Minchev have worked with the Plovdiv Philharmonic. The orchestra has toured in almost all of the European countries. The Trakiya Folklore Ensemble, founded
Plovdiv English Language School, the High School of Mathematics, the Ivan Vazov Language School, the National Schools of Commerce Plovdiv, the English Academy, the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts Plovdiv, and the French High School of Plovdiv. The city has six universities and a number of state and private colleges and branches of other universities. Those include Plovdiv University, with 900 lecturers and employees and 13,000 students; the Plovdiv Medical University, with 2,600 students; the Medical College; the Technical University of SofiaBranch Plovdiv; the Agricultural University Plovdiv; the University of Food Technologies; the Academy for Music, Dance and Fine