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The women's folk choir "Dragostin Folk National" celebrates its 30th anniversary

Dragostin Folk National
Photo: Facebook/ dragostinfolk

The women's folk choir Dragostin Folk National is celebrating three decades of its existence with a spectacular concert. The concert will take place on Sunday 24 November in the concert hall of the National Music University "Lyubomir Pipkov". Founder and conductor of the choir is prof. Stefan Dragostinov, who has prepared special surprises for the audience. The anniversary concert programme includes some of the choir's iconic folk and religious songs, as well as works written for smaller ensembles. 


Founded in 1994, Dragostin Folk National has won numerous awards and represented Bulgaria on prestigious international stages. In 2011, the ensemble came second in the international Let the Peoples Sing competition organised by the BBC. The choir has also performed at the opening of the UN session in Vienna, at the European Cultural Days in Frankfurt and at major festivals in Europe and Asia.



The choir's anniversary concert will also feature five virtuoso instrumentalists who will accompany the singers on traditional instruments, adding to the audience's enjoyment. A special guest will be Mariyana Pavlova, renowned for her unique timbre and listed in the Guinness Book of Records in 2019 as the world's lowest female voice. A long-time member of the ensemble, Mariyana has not lived in Bulgaria for many years, but has come specially for the concert.

Mariyana Pavlova
The celebratory concert marks the culmination of 30 years of intensive recording and performing, captured in 11 albums that combine contemporary interpretations of folk motifs from different regions of the country - "Sonic Icons of Bulgaria" (volumes 1-5) and "The Key to the Mystery" (volumes 1-6). 
The artistic biography of the choir's founder - prof. Stefan Dragostinov is rich. A graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the composition class of prof. Boris Arapov, he says that his work is "open" to all genres - from monumental orchestral and choral works to vocal miniatures. 

Stefan Dragostinov
A defining niche of his work in the 1970s and 1980s, and still today, is his avant-garde creative research into contemporary polythematic sound processes in music, reflected in his choral works The Fair Cantata (Politempy 1) and Politempy 3, for which he won his first international awards. 

In his works, the composer blends traditional national elements with modern compositional techniques. He is the author of 6 symphonies, including the famous Реасе Symрhony, commissioned by Rotary International as a symbol of peace and understanding. His works are performed throughout the world.


In 2007, the International World Music Committee in Korea announced its decision to award Stefan Dragostinov the academic title of World Master. He was honoured for his "outstanding achievements in the field of traditional music". The prize is in recognition of Stefan Dragostinov's contributions to research and development in the field of national musical tradition, as well as his efforts to preserve and promote it in the modern world. It also celebrates his role in integrating Bulgarian cultural identity into the global cultural and spiritual landscape.



Prof. Dragostinov likes to say that he 'plays the choir', as if he were a musician playing an instrument. 
What he will 'play' for us this time will be heard in a few hours in the concert hall of the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School.

Text by: Teodor Sokolov, 11th grade, National Music School "Lyubomir Pipkov"

Photos: Facebook / Dragostin Folk National, personal archive of Stefan Dragostinov
Posted in English by E. Radkova

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