Rhodope Mountains are one of Bulgaria’s most beautiful mountains. The town of Devin and the surrounding area abound with healing mineral water springs. Mountain lovers and tourists can enjoy breathtaking scenery and visit a number of archaeological monuments of Thracian culture, as well as the popular Yagodinska Cave, Chudnite Mostove (the Wonderful Bridges) rock phenomenon, the Trigrad Gorge canyon of vertical marble rocks, Dyavolskoto Garlo (The Devil’s Throat) cave, etc. Tourists can also enjoy traditional Rhodope songs accompanied by the magical sounding of the local Kaba Gaida (The Rhodope Mountains low-pitched bagpipe).

Decades ago the world famous orchestra 100 Kaba Bagpipes was established in the Rhodope Mountains. Many local young instrumentalists have joined the orchestra over the years. The head of the Children’s Kaba-Bagpipe Orchestra from the town of Devin Emil Cholakov told Radio Bulgaria details about the history of this music formation.

The Children’s Bagpipe Orchestra was founded in 1956 by Apostol Kisyov- the founder of 100 Kaba Bagpipes Orchestra. Meanwhile, he laid the foundations of the first music school in Devin where children learn how to play the traditional Rhodope instruments such as bagpipe, shepherd’s flute and pandore. Later, he moved to the city of Smolyan and founded another music school and the Rodopa Folkore Ensemble. His follower Stoyan Yurukov took over the Devin orchestra. The children’s Kaba-Bagpipe Orchestra was also headed by celebrated bagpipe player Vassil Bebelkov who passed away recently. Paun Kushlev and Manol Tashkov also taught at this music orchestra. Manol Tashov gave bagpipe lessons in the whole Devin municipality. I inherited Manol Tashov in the beginning of the 1990’s when I graduated from the National School of Folklore Art in the village of Shiroka Laka. I can proudly say that we have been working on a regular basis over the years and will continue to do so, in order to preserve and popularize bagpipe music in our country. We participate regularly at the folklore fairs in Rozhen and Koprivshtitsa, as well as at many fairs and festivals in Greece and Spain. We also took part at the 303 Kaba-Bagpipes concert which became a Guinness world record holder and we are very proud with this fact. We scored other significant achievements as well. The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture conferred a diploma on our orchestra for our contribution to the promotion of the national cultural identity. We were also part of the national representative list of intangible cultural heritage in 2016.

Emil Cholakov continues to promote kaba-bagpipe playing among children. He learned a lot from celebrated bagpipers Manol Radichev, Mihail Kalfov and Dafo Trendafilov. He learned the secrets of the Bulgarian Dzhura Bagpipe when he studied at theNational School of Folklore Art in Shiroka Laka. He also studied a series of theoretical disciplines at that music school. Later he passed his useful knowledge on the children who joined 100 Kaba-Bagpipe orchestra.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov