Love of Bulgarian folk music was the first impulse that brought Berkeley College of Music professor Christiane Karam to Bulgaria a few years ago. She arrived here to study with the famous Bulgarian folk singer Binka Dobreva from The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices Choir. Now she has a lot of friends here and since recently – also students.

Several days ago, Christiane completed her first master class here where she had gathered talented young Bulgarians from different towns in this country. In January, when Christiane was again in Bulgaria, she held several sessions with alumni of the D Stars Vocal School.  In the coming days she is to hold other master classes in Europe and before the start of the new school year in college –she will be briefly back to Bulgaria to participate in an art festival. Christiane Karam is also the founder of Pletenitsa Choir at Berkeley as the repertoire of the group is comprised mostly of Bulgarian and Balkan folk tunes.

Talking to RB’s Albena Bezovska, Christiane Karam says more about her work with the young singers. She also stressed she was very happy that the article about her was published in one of the issues of Zoom Bulgaria – the magazine that Radio Bulgaria publishes in English.