Experts in the specific song from Graovo folkore region evaluate highly the music style of Bulgarian folk singer Sorina Bogomilova and all music fans are touched by her brilliant singing. Sorina has inherited that gift from her family. Since she was a very young child she has been learning songs from her grandmother and mother. Her music repertoire is quite remarkable, because it is based only on songs from her native village of Divotino, which belongs to the Graovo folklore area in the Shoppe region around Bulgaria’s capital Sofia.

Sorina’s career has been marked with a lot of success. She was acknowledged and gained popularity in Bulgaria and abroad. Her music career started from her family and her school. She performed at the local school and community center as well as during her village holidays. Later, she managed to reach many world-popular music halls as a soloist of the Philip Koutev National Folk Ensemble. In 1985 Sorina made her dream come true and became a member of that popular Bulgarian folklore ensemble, where she learned the specifics of songs belonging to other folklore regions. She often took part in various chamber formations, including Vechernitza Trio. When she was recording her radio repertoire, however, she stuck with the old Graovo songs. Her recordings of Svatovski Songs, typical of the Pernik region, are standard of the traditional music style in Graovo area. Sorina dreams of finding and recording the songs of her grandmother Spasia who was a famous singer in the village of Divotino and the surrounding area. Sorina Bogomilova is proud with the composers who arranged her songs under the accompaniment of the Bulgarian National Radio Folk Orchestra such as Kosta Kolev, Rosen Genkov, Boyan Nankov, Hristofor Radanov, etc. She is about to record 12 more songs arranged by Nikolay Petrov and Georgi Andreev. Sorina is not against the attempts of the Bulgarian musicians to modernize the local folklore traditions, as soon as everything is done professionally and with a lot of taste. She sang on one stage together with pop singers who were trying to combine their music style with her exquisite Graovo singing.

This year Sorina Bogomilova is to celebrate her 50th birthday:

“After my family I love folk music the most. My whole life is a folk song. I sing authentic songs only and inherited the love in folklore from my parents. My father is a former musician and my uncles are dancers and choreographers. One of them used to dance at the Pirin Folk Ensemble. I started to dance and sing at the age of six. I used to sing at the school choir and play on a trumpet in our school orchestra until I became a 7th grade pupil. My music teacher Mrs Blagoeva discovered my music talent. She took me to the Miner’s Cultural Center in Pernik (now the Regional Historical Museum in Pernik). Boyan Nankov was once working as a conductor at that center. His wife- the celebrated Bulgarian singer Radka Aleksova also worked there. Radka and Pavlina Gorcheva introduced me to the specifics and the secrets of the Graovo singing. Later, Guna Ivanova advised me to join the Philip Koutev Folk Ensemble. I would like to thank all conductors I worked with in my music career- Maria Leshkova, Stefan Dragostinov and Georgi Genov for allowing me to sing the solos of some of the most popular songs such as Polegnala e Todora, Kazhi Angyo, Ayde Sluntse Zaidi, Kuyrkchiyski Song, Pilentse Pee, etc.”

We wish Sorina Bogomilova who celebrates her 50th jubilee to continue popularizing the Bulgarian folklore heritage in this country and abroad.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov