The Dragostinfolk National female ensemble has turned 20. The group marked its anniversary with a concert at the Lyubomir Pipkov National School of Music in Sofia. Its concert hall appeared to be small for all the fans of the singers.

Prominent Bulgarian composer Stefan Dragostinov set up the group, interweaving his surname into its name. He composed all songs and arrangements from the repertoire of Dragostinfolk. The melodies come from different folklore areas, collected with the idea to present the richness of Bulgarian folk music.

The choir has recorded 11 CDs with an overall length of more than 700 minutes. All albums go under the slogan The Sonic Icons of Bulgaria. The curious thing is that this title was first born in its English version, where the words “sonic” and “icons” have the same letters in different positions. This is only a part of the magic signs that connoisseurs can find. The covers of the series of CDs under this title are decorated with paintings of pioneer masters of Bulgarian art – Boris Georgiev, Vasil Stoilov, Vladimir Dimitrov – The Master, Ivan Markvicka etc. The recordings were broadcast by radio stations across the globe and topped the rankings. The first performances of the choir were in 1994 in Hungary and Slovakia. In 1998, the prestigious British edition Classic CD ranked the album A Love Story first due to the contemporary sound and undisputed professionalism of the performers.

In 2011, Dragostinfolk was selected by the Bulgarian National Radio to represent Bulgaria at the Let the Peoples Sing international contest, organized by the EBU and the BBC. The group was ranked second there after its exceptionally successful renditions. The singers have had concerts in Germany, Austria, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia among others.

The personal achievements of Stefan Dragostinov are impressive, as well. He has been awarded top prizes from prestigious international contests in composition, being the first Bulgarian ever in most of those, earning success with his original works. Prof. Dragostinov is a lecturer with New Bulgarian University where he picked up the latest members of the choir, along with graduates of the National School of Music in Sofia. Two of the singers of the famous Slavei quartet joined the festive concert of Dragostinfolk – Svetla Karadjova and Vania Vakari, along with famous percussionist Stoyan Yankulov – Stundji. A day after the success in Sofia the choir leaves for Germany for a short Christmas tour.