The Great Voices of Bulgaria is a folklore choir founded in 1971 by the renowned Bulgarian conductor Zdravko Mihaylov. Ilia Mihaylov has been its artistic director and conductor since 1999. The music repertoire of the choir includes pieces of authentic Bulgarian folklore, created by celebrated Bulgarian composers such as Philip Koutev, Krasimir Kyurkchiyski, Petar Lyondev, etc. The Great Voices of Bulgaria also performs Eastern Orthodox church chants. Nadka Karadzhova, Kalinka Valcheva, Nadezhda Hvoineva, Hristina Lyutova, Kremena Stancheva and many other famous folk singers were soloists of the choir over the years. The Great Voices of Bulgaria Choir participated at the most prestigious music festivals. It toured Europe, Russia, North America and Israel and won music awards. The choir released 25 albums and 3 DVDs.

In 2004 the National Film Center dedicated the movie Voices to this choir and in 2009 a team of the French Eva Production visited Bulgaria at the request of Mezzo TV to make a documentary about the choir as part of the TV series The Choirs of Europe.

We met with the choir’s conductor Ilia Mihaylov on occasion of their visit to a forum in China. Bulgarian artists participated at this forum for the first time:

We had the opportunity to be part of the 7^th International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage in China, in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan province. The festival lasted for 10 days. This huge festival is held under the auspices of UNESCO and the Chinese Ministry of Culture. For the purpose, a fair city was build. Year-round expositions are on display there. This is not only a music festival. It accentuates on all types of traditional arts and crafts. It is interesting to note that the Chinese participate at the festival with the production of tea as enduring tradition. For them, the spiritual element in the production and the consumption of tea is more important than the commercial factor. Fifteen professional ensembles from five continents were invited to take part at the festival. Three of them are from Europe – British, Russian and Bulgarian choirs. We made many new friends, because we spent long time together during the festival. Our performance was very well-accepted.

In 10 days, The Great Voices of Bulgaria choir had 15 performances at this forum. Ilia Mihaylov has more about the repertoire:

We selected pieces of some of Bulgaria’s most-renowned composers such as Philip Koutev, Krasimir Kyurkchiyski, Petar Lyondev and Stefan Mutafchiev especially for the concerts in China. Our friend Stefan Dragostinov wrote two pieces for this festival- Hello Bulgaria, Bulgaria Greets You and Blue Jasmine, which were sung in Chinese. Blue Jasmine is a traditional Chinese song, but we presented it in Bulgarian folklore arrangement. We also made a master class at the state music school in Chengdu. Nine Chinese groups were also among the participants of the festival. I was very impressed with the organization, the professionalism and the humility of the Chinese people.

The Great Voices of Bulgaria choir got ideas from the Chinese hosts for new cultural exchange in the field of culture.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov