Varna’s choral roots: from Gusla to 1956

Before telling the story of Morski Zvutsi, the author goes back to its roots. Varna is one of the places where the foundations of Bulgarian choral culture were laid after the Liberation. Dobri Hristov was born and worked here; in 1899 he founded the city’s first music society, Gusla, and led its choir himself.

In 1925 singers from the city and church choirs joined forces in the Morski Zvutsi music society. At first it had only a men’s choir; a mixed choir followed in 1927. Despite the indifference of the authorities of the time, the society became the hub of Varna’s cultural life and, with interruptions, worked until early 1948. Its conductors included Dobri Hristov, Georgi Popov, Yordan Todorov, Ivan Stefanov, Aleksandar Krastev, Haralampi Kiryakov, Hristo pop Mihaylov, Hristo Manolov and Svetoslav Obretenov.

In 1945 the Stefan Yovchev Youth Ensemble was formed – a centre for amateur music, theatre and dance among young people. Its conductors were Vesko Ivanov, Vladimir Semerdzhiev, Emil Dimchev and Vasil Dimov, and it was where Vladi Anastasov, Vasil Arnaudov, Georgi Robev and Marin Chonev himself grew up as musicians. The two ensembles became the base on which the city’s professional music institutions were built – the People’s Opera (1947) and the Varna Symphony Orchestra.

In 1951 Stefan Yovchev also closed down, and for several years Varna had no choir to bring its singers together.