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Vasil Arnaudov Sofia chamber choir to hold festive concert themed "Na mnogaya leta"

Vasil Arnaudov Sofia chamber choir
Photo: YouTube /Simona Stanoeva

In 2024, the municipal cultural institute "Sredets" House of Culture in Sofia celebrates 50 years since its establishment - an occasion which the ensembles of the cultural center mark with a series of events. Among them is the concert of the Vasil Arnaudov Sofia Chamber Choir on 25 April. 

The choir was founded in 1966, named after its founder and long-time conductor prof. Vasil Arnaudov.  For its role in the cultural life of the country the ensemble has received a number of national awards. It has won two Grand Prix, six Special Prizes and eighteen First Prizes at international competitions. It has performed at prestigious music forums in nearly 30 European countries, Japan and Turkey. The group has released gramophone records, made recordings for European and Japanese television and radio companies, and eight solo CDs. 

In the last decades, the conductor of the choir is Teodora Pavlovich - professor of choral conducting, head of the Department of Conducting and Composition at the National Academy of Music "Pancho Vladigerov". 

"In connection with the 50th anniversary of the Sredets House of Culture, the Vasil Arnaudov Sofia Chamber Choir prepared a festive concert called "Na mnogaya leta" (Many Years), explains Prof. Pavlovich. "This is our musical greeting for the anniversary of the Culture House, which we love very much. The programme includes works by Handel, Mozart, as well as works by prominent Bulgarian composers, among them the names of Petko Stainov, Todor Popov, Filip Kutev, Alexander Tanev. There will also be works by the young Valentina Dobreva and Martin Antonov. The concert will take place in the art gallery "Seasons" of the Sredets House of Culture. There is currently a documentary photo exhibition there which presents the activities of all the ensembles of the Sredets cultural house. I am sure there will be a lot of festive mood. Sredets is really our creative home. I have to say that it is extremely important both for the people I lead and for me personally. I started working at Sredets back in 1984 as choirmaster of the Sofia Girls' Choir, which unfortunately no longer exists. In parallel I worked with the Sofia Chamber Choir, which became part of the cultural institute in 1993. After the pandemic, a young addition came, and not only from Bulgaria. We have a singer from Ukraine, several girls from China (my students from the NMA). We keep working and moving forward", explains the group's conductor.

You can watch a concert performance of the choir - "Yunache karat vorzano" - a Bulgarian folk song from the Rhodope Folklore region, arrangement of Valentina Dobreva. Soloist - Simona Staneova. Piano accompaniment  - Blagovesta Angelova. Conductor - Teodora Pavlovich.






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