A long-time soloist of the Mystery of Bulgarian Voices Women's Folk Choir, Kalinka Zgurova's repertoire consists of hundreds of folk songs. She has been teaching for more than ten years now while the Kanev-Zgurova Foundation supports talented young performers. Listen next to one of the slow songs that Mrs Zgurova recorded recently: Sabrali sa se sabrali (A Get-Together) with the accompaniment of the BNR Folk Music Orchestra.

Folk music has always had a prominent place in the life of Lazar Nalbantov. He learned folk songs from his family and friends. He has already released an album jointly with bagpipe player Petko Yalnazov. Before learning more details about his creative activity, listen to one of his new songs, Zaspala maminata Mila (Mummy's Mila Went Asleep) arrangement by Tasho Barulov.

„I was born in Burgas”, Lazar says. “I owe a lot to my teacher Penka Petrova. I have also got music training at the children's folk formation Little Thracian Child led by Nina Mateva. I am happy to work with bagpipe player Petko Yalnazov with whom we released a joint album. We have a band and often take part in concerts and festivals. We present songs from the Strandja folklore region, more notably from the eastern part of the mountain. It is the region that I come from. I learned the first local melodies from my grandmother, a gifted singer. I have learned lovely songs from the great Strandja singers Georgi Pavlov, Magda Pushkarova, Yanka Rupkina and Kalinka Zgurova. I would like to tell my coevals to explore the repertoire of the older generations of folk singers. There are many little known collections of folk songs, not to mention the exceptionally rich audio library of the Bulgarian National Radio including wonderful recordings of authentic folklore. For example, two of the songs that we recorded are from the folk festival in the village of Gramatikovo that BNR selected. And the song Koi trop (Who is Knocking) I recorded from an old woman but have I have adapted the song to my voice.”

English Daniela Konstantinova

The audio file contains the following folk songs:

1. Sabrali sa se sabrali (A Get-Together), soloist Kalinka Zgurova, accompaniment by BNR Folk Music Orchestra, conductor Dimitar Hristov

2. Zaspala maminata Mila (Mummy's Mila Went Asleep), Lazar Nalbantov, arrangement by Tasho Barulov

3. Koi tropa (Who is Knocking), Lazar Nalbantov

4. Haide, haide, kardash (Come on, Pal), Kalina Zgurova