The youngest Bulgarian National Radio music group, the Radio Children are celebrating their 25^th birthday with a big concert at 5 PM tonight, 15 May in Studio No. 1 of the BNR. The child musicians and Ilina Todorova, founder and conductor of the children’s vocal group have lined up 25 songs for their 25^th birthday – one for each year.

The Radio Children is among the formations that blazed a trail for other children’s vocal groups, though their style of singing is a far cry from the traditional academic sound of all other choirs in Bulgaria, including children’s choirs. Beaming, happy faces, the kids act so naturally on stage that they immediately win over the hearts of any audience. Here is what Ilina Todorova remembers from the first years:

“The political and social changes in Bulgaria brought about changes inside the Bulgarian National Radio that included the official marking of major Christian holidays and they go with a certain kind of music. Songs had to be recorded connected with Easter, Christmas. The audio library of the BNR didn’t have any of the old school songs either. So there was need of a children’s vocal group to record this repertoire. From the very start we have been working with Doroteya Petrova – producer of music for children at the BNR. We have always endeavoured to offer a wide variety of music. We have a rich repertoire that includes works composed specifically for the Radio Children, including children’s school songs from past years.”

Ilina Todorova has graduated piano at the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School and then the National Music Academy in Sofia but she says her work with the Radio Children opened up new horizons.

“The children’s age as well as the style of the songs has meant we had to simplify them – some of our kids are aged 3-4, the oldest are 12,” says Ilina Todorova. “The group has performed abroad – a few years ago we sang at the Latvian National Radio in Riga, together with their own children’s group, and in the audience of the concert we gave together was renowned Latvian composer Raymond Paulus. We have performed at the Saint-Denis International Art Festival in France.”

The composers who have written music for the child singers include famous names like Villy Kazasyan, Petar Stoupel, Bentzion Eliezer, Lyubomir Denev, Viacheslav Koushev.  Are there songs still the Radio Children have not recorded but would like to include in their repertoire – Ilina Todorova:

“We would love to record Little white cloud, a popular children’s song with lyrics by Ran Bosilek. I am glad to say we managed to record another classical children’s song – Dear flower. The songs we have got lined up for the concert trace the history of the group – from the first songs we included in our repertoire to the newest. Young composer Vladimir Tsanev who lives in Japan wrote a song for us called Sing with the Radio Children, which we shall be performing at the concert. We have also invited former group members and they will join us on stage for the final song – Hey, my friend, hello, the idea being that music, goodness really can save the world.”

Audio contains the following songs:

-  Cat, music by Lyubomir Denev;

-  Prayer, lyrics by Ivan Vazov;

-  Sing with the Radio Children, music by Vladimir Tsanev;

-  Hey, my friend, hello, music by Haygashot Agasyan.

English version: Milena Daynova