If you want to know what some of the world’s most famous bands have in common - The Prodigy, Imagine Dragons, Kiss, Metallica – you will find the answer in the concert by Prime Orchestra. The musicians from Kharkiv in Ukraine are coming to Sofia with their Rock Sympho Show. Their music, described as crossover, combines elements of various styles. The show is at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia on 14 December, and the invitation to it comes from a Bulgarian lady who was born in Ukraine, and who has no problem throwing a bridge between the musical culture of the two countries – Bulgaria and Ukraine. 

Her name is Kristina Miteva and she is a member of the team organizing the event, and many other appearances by Ukrainian artists in Bulgaria. She is 25, and is from Melitopol, a town in Southeastern Ukraine, where there is quite a big group of ethnic Bulgarians.

Kristina has felt a bond with Bulgaria since childhood – her grandmother is of Bulgarian descent, and the language spoken in her home is a kind of ancient Bulgarian, Bulgarian songs are sung and Bulgarian tradition – observed. At the age of 17, Kristina was able to come to Bulgaria to continue her education. To begin with, she didn’t know anyone and found the language difficult.

“In 2015, when I came to Bulgaria, it was my first time abroad. I did know some basic things, a little bit of the country’s history because we have studied it at school, what I knew well were the Bulgarian folk songs,” says Kristina Miteva in an interview with Radio Bulgaria and goes on:

“In our town the focus was on folklore. My mother was head of a Bulgarian folklore ensemble there. That is why in my childhood I sang more Bulgarian songs than I did Ukrainian. I know from my grandmother that my family came from the region of Sliven in Bulgaria. Then they moved to Bessarabia, a historical region in what is today Moldova and Ukraine. Some of the Bulgarians moved to Tavria. We sing a lot in our family. My mother teaches piano and vocals, and in my own childhood I played the violin, so music has been part of my life ever since. I can’t remember there being any concerts in the town, or public gatherings at which we haven’t sung. I have a younger sister, she too is at university in Sofia, at the University of National and World Economy. My mother and father are in Sofia now, one of my grandmothers is also here. We moved after the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine. We have adapted now, and we are glad we are here.”

Everything in Bulgaria makes an impression on Kristina Miteva. She is fascinated by Bulgaria’s mountains and sea, and finds in them a powerful energy that can give a person the will to live. She says she has been to many other places in the world but has never seen the kind of beauty she has seen in Bulgaria anywhere else. She loves returning to Plovdiv, the town where she spent the first three years when she came to the country:

“I studied English philology at the university in Plovdiv, then took a master’s degree in corporate security at the University of National and World Economy. But at the moment I am working as interpreter with the UN International Organisation for Migration. There, I interpret for refugees from Ukraine. We focus mostly on providing aid to different countries, to the refugees on their territory. We help them adapt with information and psychological support. Knowing a foreign language gives me a lot, especially now that I see there are skilled and highly educated specialists coming from Ukraine, but not knowing the language, their knowledge is inapplicable. Yes, we can use automatic translation on our phones, but knowing a foreign language is the only thing that gives us the freedom to communicate.”

At Christmas, Krsitina Miteva is going to be with her family in Sofia. By an old tradition brought from Ukraine, for Christmas Eve they bake milina, which is not unlike the Bulgarian pitka (flatbread) with a coin inside. Whoever chooses the piece with the coin in it will have good luck throughout the year – the old Bulgarians in Ukraine say, as do we here, in Bulgaria.

“At Christmas we sing Bulgarian songs, decorate survachki. My father was even in a koledari (caroling) group with other Bulgarians, they would go from house to house with wishes for health and prosperity,” remembers Kristina Miteva from Melitopol.

More:

• Bulgaria will always be a home from home to Ukrainian refugees

Translated and posted by Milena Daynova

Photos courtesy of Kristina Miteva, Facebook / uconcertbg