The guests of the Dobri Voinikov Children and Youth Choir Fests left the town of Shumen a few days ago, saying goodbye to the Bodra Pesen Choir which hosted the event. The festival was established by renowned Bulgarian choir conductor and long-year head of Bodra Pesen Prof. Veneta Vicheva. Denitsa Uzunova has been the choir’s conductor since 2011. This year’s edition /April 6 – 9/ was devoted to the 2016 85^th birth anniversary of Prof. Vicheva and also to the 45^th anniversary of the initial National Students’ Choir Fests – the old name of the festival. Formations from Romania, Hungary and Ukraine participated, alongside their colleagues from different Bulgarian cities and towns. Secretary-General of the European Federation of Choirs Jean-Pierre van Avermaet was a guest of honor at the event.

The major event of the festival was the global premiere of the Blue Skies of Dreams cantata, created by Ambrož Čopi for the Bodra Pesen Choir exclusively. This is not the first work of the talented Slovenian composer and conductor, written for the Shumen formation. He has had now 4 years of friendship with the little singers. In his words any visit to Bulgaria is really inspiring for him.

The piece of Ambrož Čopi was played at the final concert of the festival, together with the Shumen Philharmonic, representatives of several Bulgarian choir formations and with the exclusive participation of one of the visiting choirs.

“We reached our goal with those fests,” Denitsa Uzunova says. “Over 250 children sang together new music, thus creating something beautiful. Our guests continue to express their gratitude. The audience remained astonished after hearing the Blue Skies of Dreams’ global premiere, dedicated to the 45^th anniversary of Shumen’s choir festival. It was a great concert, attended by our special guests from the Aurina Hungarian choir. They had received the support of the Hungarian Embassy and cultural institute. Conductor László Durányik received the conductor’s mastery statuette, named after Prof. Vicheva. Prof. Teodora Pavlovic honored us with heading the traditional artistic meeting of colleagues from different cities and towns. We marked the 85^th anniversary of Prof. Vicheva by gifting the participants with a book, dedicated to her. The meeting with composer Lyubomir Denev and poetess Maria Doneva – the creators of a song cycle for the choir that I lead was interesting as well. We presented the music in our program for the festival’s unveiling.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev