An exchange with Rostock and gold at the Fifth National Festival (1978)

The spring of 1978 was crowded. The vocal studio carried on with its own life: on 16 March Mimi Dimova’s students gave a “Schumann evening” of his songs, with Nedyalka Stradalska at the piano. Chonev announced a forthcoming recording of the oratorio “April 1876” in Sofia; the choir also owed a concert in Tervel, postponed for a year because the hall there had been damaged by the Vrancea earthquake; it had to prepare the opening of the May Choral Festival and, in November, the final stage of the Fifth National Festival, where a win would mean having to defend the title of “representative choir”. The trip to the Athens festival fell through, but the disappointment was eased by a firm invitation to an exchange with the Neptun choir of the Rostock shipyard.

In April Milko Dimitrov gave a slide lecture on Varna’s musical history since the Liberation. Mimi Dimova retired as the choir’s salaried artistic director and stayed on as a part-time voice teacher; her post went to the young Rositsa Stamenova (later Shtereva), until then the leader of the Varna Boys’ Choir. On 26 April the choir turned 22; its chairman Rayko Kolemanov failed to come and congratulate it, so Chonev gave the address himself.

The German guests arrived on 10 May and stayed at the Bor hotel in Druzhba. They sang in Provadia and at the May Choral Festival, where the two choirs took turns as performers and audience, and the visit ended with a get-together at the Chernomorets restaurant. On 20 May Morski Zvutsi closed the Days of Culture in Tervel and was at once invited back for the following year. Having “April 1876” ready also earned the choir a place at Varna Summer ’78: on 19 June it was performed under Vasil Kazandzhiev at the Stoyan Bachvarov Drama Theatre. With building work starting in its rehearsal hall, the choir moved temporarily to a club on Tolbukhin Street.

In the autumn Kolemanov became director of the Palace of Culture and Sports, and the board invited Ivanka Hristova to be chair. On 23 October 102 people – two more than agreed – left for East Germany; the hosts covered the two “extra” singers as well, a gesture the choir found truly generous. The choir was based at the shipyard’s holiday centre in Kühlungsborn. On 27 October 1978 it sang in Rostock’s Baroque Hall, then in a church-museum in Stralsund, where the audience was thin, and in the theatre in Greifswald, where the hall was full. The board was received by the mayor of Rostock, the German press wrote of “sounds from the Black Sea”, and the last day was spent in Warnemünde before the journey home via Berlin.

By 5 November the choir was back in Varna and straight back at work. On 23 November Rositsa Shtereva led her first full rehearsal of the whole choir, with Chonev present. On 25 November 1978 a brilliant performance made Morski Zvutsi a laureate of the Fifth National Festival with a gold medal. To defend its title of “representative choir” it now had to learn further demanding pieces – Marian Koval’s “Ocean”, Al. Tekeliev’s “Scherzo”, St. Mutafchiev’s “Spring” and Todor Popov’s “Invasion”.