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The London Bulgarian Choir (LBC) is a
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
-based
amateur choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...
specialising in
Bulgarian folk music.
Dessislava Stefanova has led the choir since its formation in 2000.
Primarily a performing choir, the LBC perform around twenty concerts a year and have been involved in high-profile collaborations with
British Sea Power
Command of the sea (also called control of the sea or sea control) is a naval military concept regarding the strength of a particular navy to a specific naval area it controls. A navy has command of the sea when it is so strong that its rival ...
,
Doves
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
,
Orlando Gough
Orlando Gough ( ; born 1953 in Brighton, Sussex) is a British composer, educated at Oxford, and noted for projects written for ballet, contemporary dance and theatre. Collaborators have included Siobhan Davies, Alain Platel, Shobana Jeyasingh ...
, and
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and violist.
His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.
Early life and background
Kenn ...
.
History and achievements
Awards
LBC won the Open Choir Category of
BBC Radio 3's Choir of the Year 2006 competition.
Tours
In the summer of 2005 LBC toured Bulgaria. The tour was covered in a full-page article in the British
Songlines magazine and filmed for Bulgarian television. The choir returned to Bulgaria in August 2010, featuring in national press and television, and performing at the
Koprivshtitsa
Koprivshtitsa ( bg, Копривщица, pronounced , from the Bulgarian word , ''kopriva'', meaning "nettle") is a historic town in the Koprivshtitsa Municipality in Sofia Province, central Bulgaria, lying on the Topolnitsa River among the S ...
folk festival and the
Bansko
Bansko ( bg, Банско ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Pirin Mountains at an elevation of 1200m above sea level. It is a ski resort.
Legends
There are several legends about who founded Bansko. According to o ...
jazz festival. The choir returned to Bulgaria for a third time in 2015, sang in the Netherlands and in Switzerland in 2016, and performed with violinist
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and violist.
His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.
Early life and background
Kenn ...
in
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
,
Plovdiv and London in the autumn of the same year. In 2019, the choir toured in France and Poland.
Soundtracks
Sections of the choir contributed to the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...
s for the 2004
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
epic ''
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
'', the 2005
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
''
The Virgin Queen'',
Halo 4
''Halo 4'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. ''Halo 4''s story follows a cybernetically enhanced human supersoldier, Master Chief, a ...
in 2012 and the 2019 BBC World Service podcas
Missing Cryptoqueen The Virgin Queen soundtrack won the 2007
BASCA
The Ivors Academy (formerly the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors – BASCA) is one of the largest professional associations for music writers in Europe. The academy exists to support, protect, and campaign for the interests ...
Ivor Novello award
The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been ...
in the Best Television Soundtrack category.
Events
The choir has taken part in London-based events such as the
Exhibition Road
Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.
Overview
The road gets i ...
Music Day, Various Voices, the
London Jazz Festival
The London Jazz Festival is a music festival held every November. It takes place in London venues such as the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall and in smaller jazz clubs, such as Ronnie Scott's and the Vortex Jazz Club. It is produced by Ser ...
, Daylight Music, Unamplifire and the London Festival of Bulgarian Culture.
Outside London, the choir regularly take part in music and arts festivals, and have performed at the
Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...
Arts Festival, Musicport World Music Festival,
Sidmouth Folk Week
There has been a folk festival in the coastal town of Sidmouth in South West England in the first week of August every year since 1955, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to over 700 diverse events.
Sidmouth Folk Festival offers a wide r ...
, the
Larmer Tree Festival, Narberth Acapella, the Good Life Festival and Smugglers Festival.
Collaborations
Composer and
animateur
An animateur is a musical professional whose role is to engage audiences with a new or unfamiliar form of music, "bringing it to life" beyond what might be expected in a traditional performance.
The role of animateur developed from the French con ...
Orlando Gough
Orlando Gough ( ; born 1953 in Brighton, Sussex) is a British composer, educated at Oxford, and noted for projects written for ballet, contemporary dance and theatre. Collaborators have included Siobhan Davies, Alain Platel, Shobana Jeyasingh ...
used the choir in central roles for the performances ''Singing River'' at the re-opening of the
Royal Festival Hall and ''Shouting Gallery'' in the
National Portrait Gallery.
Part of the choir sang with
British Sea Power
Command of the sea (also called control of the sea or sea control) is a naval military concept regarding the strength of a particular navy to a specific naval area it controls. A navy has command of the sea when it is so strong that its rival ...
on
BBC Two's music
television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
''
Later... with Jools Holland'' in January 2008 and joined them again for the
Mercury Music Awards later that year. The full choir joined British Sea Power for concerts in
the Roundhouse
The Roundhouse is a performing arts and concert venue situated at the Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England. The building was erected in 1846–1847 by the London & North Western Railway as a roundhous ...
in 2008 and
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
in 2009.
The choir collaborated and performed with
Doves
Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...
as part of the
BBC Electric Proms in October 2009.
In 2012, the choir performed with
Cerys Matthews
Cerys Matthews (; born 11 April 1969) is a Welsh singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster. She was a founding member of Welsh rock band Catatonia and a leading figure in the " Cool Cymru" movement of the late 1990s.
Matthews programmes an ...
, adjusting two songs from their repertoire to fit with two from Cerys' album Tir. 10 singers from the choir worked with
Neil Davidge
Neil Davidge (born 29 June 1962) is an English record producer, songwriter, film score composer, musician, and occasional backing vocalist. Once an associate of dance producers DNA, he is best known as the long-term co-writer and producer for ...
on the soundtrack to
Halo 4
''Halo 4'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. ''Halo 4''s story follows a cybernetically enhanced human supersoldier, Master Chief, a ...
. In 2013, the choir worked with
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor (born 10 April 1979) is an English singer and songwriter. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded Ellis-Bextor went solo and ach ...
on the recording of the track ''
Cry to the Beat of the Band'' for her album ''
Wanderlust
Wanderlust is a strong desire to wander or travel and explore the world.
Etymology
The first documented use of the term in English occurred in 1902 as a reflection of what was then seen as a characteristically German predilection for wandering ...
''.
In 2016, the choir performed a series of three concerts in the UK and Bulgaria with
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and violist.
His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.
Early life and background
Kenn ...
and Georgi Andreev (Bulgarian:
Георги Андреев).
The choir were featured on
the Turbans
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
eponymous album, and sang in the
National Theatre's 2018 Public Acts production of
''Pericles''.
Radio
Dessislava Stefanova was the featured guest on Radio 3's ''The Choir'' with
Aled Jones
Aled Jones, (born 29 December 1970) is a Welsh singer and radio and television presenter. As a teenage chorister, he reached widespread fame during the mid-1980s. Since then he has worked in television with the BBC and ITV, and radio (for ...
in February 2007, and presented ''Bulgaria's Voice'' on Radio 3 in 2005. Both programs included recordings of the choir in performance. The choir was featured in an episode of ''
Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, (, born 9 December 1950) is a Kittitian-English singer-songwriter and guitarist.
A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received ...
's Favourite Choirs'' on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
in 2008, and in ''The Choral History of Britain: Singing for Everyone'' in 2017.
In 2019, the choir produced original music for the
BBC Sounds podcast series ''The Missing Cryptoqueen''.
Discography
* ''Alyana Galyana'', 2008
* ''Christmas Concert'' (DVD), 2009
* ''Goro Le Goro'', 2012
* ''Songs of Forbidden Love'', 2019
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
London choirs
British choirs
Bulgarian choirs
Musical groups established in 2000