In Bulgaria, choral singing has its origins in the tradition of collective performance of folk songs and chants performed during various rituals even in the pagan culture which preceded Christianity in Bulgarian lands. In 1868, 10 years before the Liberation of Bulgaria, Yanko Mustakov founded the first polyphonic Bulgarian choir in the town of Svishtov - a male formation with a secular repertoire. Gradually, the introduction of music education in Bulgarian schools began, as well as the creation of small choirs. 

Exactly a century later, the first all-boy choir in Bulgaria came into existence - The Sofia Boys' Choir at at the “Tsar Boris III-1928” community center with conductor Liliana Todorova. Pupils from all metropolitan schools, aged 8 to 15, participate in it. From 1989 to date, the conductor of the first boys' choir in Bulgaria has been Dr. Adriana Blagoeva, a long-time professor of choral conducting and deputy rector of the Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy.

Under the leadership of Prof. Blagoeva, the group performs concerts and participates in festivals all over Europe and Asia. It increased its formations to three – children's, youth and mixed choir, which gives the possibility to the little singers to continue to be engaged in this art after the natural mutation of their voices.

"It allows for a wider repertoire, more interesting performance opportunities and, of course, broadens the boys' knowledge of music." Our team has also participated in productions of the Stefan Makedonski Musical Theater and the National Opera, in musicals of the Nikolay Binev Youth Theater in Sofia. This is how singers can encounter composers and styles from different eras. Of course, to this day, one of the main lines in our repertoire policy is the performance of arrangements of Bulgarian folklore and Church Slavonic music," says Prof. Adriana Blagoeva especially for Radio Bulgaria.

"Boys' choir singing in Bulgaria does not have very long traditions, bearing in mind that we were the first and are "only" 55 years old. Some of the choral groups in Europe have several hundred years of tradition. For example, the Boys' Choir from the Cathedral of St. Ursen in Solothurn, Switzerland, which will visit Sofia, was created at the end of the 10th century. An extremely long history, which is characteristic of most Western European boys' choirs, as they were created in the spirit of Catholic tradition and the need for such ensembles to participate in Catholic church services. In Bulgaria and other Orthodox countries, boys' choirs are not related to religion, but they are extremely lively ensembles, created as part of cultural centers, community centers and with very big ambitions to achiеve equally high artistic achievements as ensembles from Western Europe," says Prof. Blagoeva.

Between October 6 and 8, four boy choirs from Bulgaria, Belgium and Switzerland in five concerts in three Bulgarian cities will immerse us in the magic of modern choral music. The event represents the final third part of a European project that began with a festival in Sofia in October 2022, followed by a second edition of The Boys are Singing in Reykjavík, Iceland, in early June 2023.

The main part of the musical program will be performed in the Concert Hall of the National Music Academy in Sofia, but concerts are also planned in the halls of the "Rila - 1898" Community Centre in the town of Dolna Banya and the "Hristo Botev 1884" Community Centre in Botevgrad, as the full program can be found on the official website of the festival.

"This is one of the important goals of the project - to popularize musical culture not only in big cities and the main musical centers of the respective countries, but also in smaller towns. As they say - to improve the awareness of the public about choral music of different nationalities, about composers from different eras. At the same time, another important goal of ours is to show especially boys' choral singing, which is very prevalent in the musical traditions of Western Europe, but not so popular in our country and in other Eastern European countries. The concerts will present the musical traditions of the respective countries. Although male choral singing is gaining great popularity worldwide, there is no other such festival in Europe today that gathers international choral singers in one place. The concerts are with free admission so that more people can experience this special and impactful singing," explains Prof. Blagoeva.

And at the very opening of the festival on Friday and at its closing - at the gala concert on Sunday, all ensembles will perform together the anthem of the forum "Viva la musica" written by Prof. Adriana Blagoeva, as well as the song specially created for the occasion "The Boys are Singing" by Bulgarian popular singer-songwriter Stefan Valdobrev. As a side program, informal meetings of the performers with the audience and with other prominent Bulgarian artists are planned. There will be creative meetings of the conductors to exchange ideas as well as workshops with the participants to prepare their joint performances.

Photos: theboysaresinging.com, Facebook/SofiaBoysChoir, BTA