A Spain that slipped away and a year of waiting (1984)

Getting to Spain proved the hardest task of all. Quotes from Orbita, DAP, RORO and MAT never fell below 100,000 leva, which the choir did not have; the Municipal Council asked for a budget for the trip and the new costumes but held out no hope of money. In early April the idea arose of sailing on the ship V. Kolarov, Varna–Barcelona and back via Genoa and Piraeus, for 93,000 leva – with the help of Strahil Hristov, deputy chair of the Regional People’s Council. On 10 April the choir welcomed the conductor Petya Pavlovich and the voice teacher Dimitar Stoyanov from the Choral School in Kazanlak.

On 16 April, however, a letter from Barcelona ended the worries in an unexpected way: the organisers knew the choir’s quality and were sure it would win first prize, but asked it to apply for the following competition. It turned out that a children’s choir from Harmanli had arranged an exchange with a Spanish choir, and a children’s section had been opened for the first time. Remembering a similar episode with Middlesbrough, England, the choir refused to play the “intruder” and withdrew – its effort and hopes wasted. Gone too was its slot in the Arts Committee’s plan for a visit to a Western country that year.

The blow did not stop the work. On 10 May, within the 17th May Choral Festival, the choir appeared in the final stage of the National Festival and received an excellent assessment from the experts. It sang in the city’s massed choir at the 24 May parade, while a planned concert in Targovishte on 8 June fell through because some 20 singers could not get time off work. On 14 June a joint concert with the Varna Boys’ and Youth Choir at the House of Amateur Arts was a great success, with shouts of “Bravo!”. Work began on Dvořák’s “Stabat Mater” for the centenary of his birth.

On 28 June the choir recorded Stefan Mutafchiev’s “Bright Day” for television, for the 40th anniversary of 9 September 1944; when false notes were found, it was re-recorded on 2 July with the boys, and filming at the Summer Theatre with players of the Varna Symphony Orchestra ended at 10.30 p.m. In July a letter came from Cork inviting the choir as a past prize-winner, but it was unclear whether as a guest or a competitor; without waiting for an answer, the board confirmed by phone for 1985. Rosemarie Hayduk was exploring exchanges with the mixed youth choir of Speyer and a Dutch choir.

The autumn was overshadowed by the unfinished renovation of the hall. On 7 September the choir sang in the massed choir under Ivan Marinov for the 40th anniversary of 9 September, on 14 September for 40 years of the Interior Ministry at the Naroden Flot House, and on 28 September, for an international medical symposium, it gave a concert with the Boys’ Choir conducted by Rositsa Shchereva. Petar Vitanov celebrated 25 years as the choir’s pianist. In winter heating by electricity was banned, and the existing heaters were used “at the risk of a penalty”. The Dutch declined for financial reasons, the Germans offered only three nights, Cork stayed silent, and a chance of an exchange with a French choir was passed by Donka Bozadzhieva to the Boys’ Choir. Finally, on 10 December 1984, a telex from Spain confirmed that Morski Zvutsi had been included in the Cantonigròs competition.