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The history of the Zagore Folk Ensemble started back in 1955. It was established by conductor Panayot Yanev and the first concert was on 5 September 1956. “The ancient Zagore area is the heart of Thrace. Today’s Stara Zagora was created more than 8,000 years ago and it suffered a lot over the centuries. The Zagore girls are famous for their rich and beautiful voices, the play of the shepherd’s flutes are magical, along with the ones of gadulkas, the playful sounds of bagpipes too…” – these are the lines that start the chronicle book about Zagore.

No doubt the ensemble is one of the town’s cultural landmarks today. It has a lot of awards, it has represented Bulgaria at international festivals in Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Greece, Turkey, Russia etc. The gold medal at the 1961 International Youth Festival was one of the first rewards won. The formation has been granted the 1^st Degree Cyril and Methodius Order, the Crystal Lyre 2000 of the Union of Bulgarian Music and Dance Artists, the Award of Stara Zagora etc. In 2010 it got the recognition of the Council of European Cultural and Scientific Community for “high prestige, public recognition and contribution to Bulgarian culture conquered”.

Choreographer Vasil Gerlimov has headed the ensemble for over two decades.

“There are so many names, related to the forming of Zagore that I cannot list them all. Extraordinary creators have worked for them, the best in the folklore area: choreographers Agripina Voinova, Belcho Stanev, Ivan Todorov and Atanas Atanasov. Famous composers have covered and composed their own works exclusively for the ensemble – Krasimir Kyurkchiiski, Academician Nikolay Kaufman and others.

We had lots of concerts across the country this year. We were honored to close the Review of Professional Folk Ensembles in the town of Pazardjik, which is one of the biggest forums here. All the professional ensembles of Bulgaria took part in it – a true palette of music and dances. I am happy that all our colleagues are working hard, despite the problems that our cultural sphere has been facing for decades. This is our common appeal to the society – to work in the name of our traditional heritage.”

There was a real folklore fest over the weekend in Stara Zagora. The municipality, the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad and the town hall of Malka Vereya organized a First Folklore Meeting of Bulgarian Formations from Abroad. The idea for the event belonged to the Vereya Folk Club from Chicago, which took part in the concerts. On July 25 – 26 the Rosa band from Atlanta, Bulgari from Montreal, Dimitrovche from Toronto, Bulgara from London and Rodina from Athens showed their magic onstage, along with soloists John Kostov – a singer from Palma de Mallorca, Spain and Krassimir Panchev with his bagpipe, from Cyprus. Shepherd flute’s players Angel Zhekov and Dimitar Stefanov, along with folk singer Temenuga Zhekova arrived from Chicago. The performers and management of the Zagore Ensemble hosted the event and took part in its opening with their renditions.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev