Vasko Vasilev-Bazilio starts the New Year with a heart full of memories and gratitude

The singer of the BNR Mixed Choir celebrates 40 years of his creative career in radio

published on 1/1/25 9:05 AM

Photo: Personal archive

Turning a new page, 2025 comes with hope and faith in better days, in peace that will prevail, in happiness and love. On the first day of January - Golyam Sechko, as it is known in the Bulgarian tradition - the mood is upbeat and smiles are everywhere. The Orthodox Church celebrates the teacher of religion, theologian, philosopher and writer - St Basil the Great. All dioceses celebrate the Holy Mass of St Basil, and people celebrate St Basil's Day. The idea that active charity and benevolence are the true expression of Christ's law of love and forgiveness belongs to Basil the Great. Not coincidentally, this is what the singer who celebrates his name day today - Vasko Vasilev-Bazilio - believes in his life and work.

In the new 2025 he is preparing a major concert that will also mark four decades since he joined the family of the Bulgarian National Radio.

"40 years in Bulgarian National Radio - indeed a very important opportunity for me as an artist, but it also changed my personal life path. The BNR gave me a lot of positive emotions and was a springboard in my life. It was here that I met my wife (Nataniela Vasileva) and we started a family. She spent about the same number of years as an editor in the Albanian language section of Radio Bulgaria. I am really very happy to have found my refuge here as an artist and as a person. It has given me the most important things, namely my family and many friends."

It all started with a job opening in the early 1980s. The competition was not for singers, but for sound engineers. After a two-month selection process and assessment of his skills, Vasilev was appointed to the "Technical Directorate" of what was then Bulgaria's only radio station.

At the time, Vasko Vassilev was a student at the Pop Music Department of the State Music Conservatory and a singer in the choir of the Construction Troops Ensemble. And as he jokingly says about himself: "Champagne doesn't stay bottled!"

"The urge to go on stage, to work, to create, to sing, has always been a great drive for me. They announced competitions for the Svetoslav Obretenov Chapel Choir and for soloists in the National Radio Mixed Choir. I auditioned for both and was accepted. At some point I decided to stay in the Radio Mixed Choir.

We used to travel outside Bulgaria for about six months a year. We were very successful in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Israel, Japan... We were better known in the world than in Bulgaria" - Vasko proudly recalls the golden years of his choir's history.

The Mixed Choir's repertoire was mainly operatic, "and we sang almost all the famous opera titles," the singer recalls. In this way he met some of the great luminaries of opera, including the great soprano Gena Dimitrova. She liked the young Basilio's performance in the opera Nabucco and gave him several weeks of intensive solfege lessons.

Very personally, with a dose of humility, but with total dedication, Basilio also accepts his role as a performer of Slavic Orthodox chant. In recent years, faith has been a very important and integral part of his life and work, as the concert "With the gracious power of song" two years ago showed.

"I will never forget one of the concerts when several ladies came out of the front row of the cathedral crying from the ecstasy they had experienced during our performance of the Church Slavonic songs.

In addition to his years with the BNR Mixed Choir, Vasko Vassilev-Basilio has also had a solo career singing pop and folk music, giving concerts at home and around the world, releasing several albums and always remaining connected to his homeland.

The Bulgarian audience is very special, especially when it is outside the borders of the country, says the musician.

"They are much more sensitive to all things Bulgarian because they don't live in the homeland. They are very grateful for what we perform and give them as spiritual food. I feel very fortunate to have been a channel of such beauty and emotional attunement in the souls of the listeners for so many years, as a singer at the National Radio and as a solo artist," Vasko concludes today.

This sense of gratitude and the journey he has undertaken will serve as the inspiration for a new album of Church Slavonic chants. The singer will also publish his autobiography in 2025. In it, the Bulgarian National Radio, the travels with the Mixed Choir and the magic of music will play an important role.

A date for a major concert to mark the anniversary will be announced shortly. Last but not least, Bazilio will defend his doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Theology of St Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia, dedicated to the writer, poet, artist and scholar Nikolay Rainov - a seeker of God and a challenger of religion. "With all this, I am closing a very important creative, spiritual and life cycle," he admits emphatically. What will not change, however, is the power of music and the gift of making people happy and better. And Vasko Vassilev-Bazilio has a New Year's wish for the listeners of Radio Bulgaria:

"I wish everyone health, faith in God, goodness and love. Always be inspired, seek the light in your life, the spiritual strength to live it worthily and discover your own song and your unique talent. This is what I have been doing for many years with my faith in man and in the Lord Jesus Christ. I sing my song and praise God for everything!

Vasko Vasilev-Bazilio and the wholesome power of songs

Photos: personal archive, BNR, Facebook /Vasko Vazilio, Facebook /BNR Mixed Choir

English publication: E. Radkova

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Vasko Vasilev-Bazilio starts the New Year with a heart full of memories and gratitude

The singer of the BNR Mixed Choir celebrates 40 years of his creative career in radio

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