Cantonigròs: two first prizes (1985)

The choir entered 1985 without a clear programme. The scores for Cantonigròs had still not arrived, and to an insistent enquiry from Cork the board replied with a firm “no”. From the start of the year the leaders’ salaries were paid by the culture department of the Municipal People’s Council, which eased the budget a little. By mid-February the music for the mixed, women’s and folk categories arrived and learning began at once; Chonev took in new singers and checked the voices of the old ones. An invitation to the Sofia Music Weeks on 16 June with the state radio orchestra under the People’s Artist V. Stefanov put the choir’s part in the Varna Music Evenings in doubt. Radio Varna broadcast “Moma loze sadila”, “Yovo le”, “Gorski char” and “Bright Rain”.

On 15 May the choir, together with the Boys’ Choir, opened the 18th Prof. G. Dimitrov International May Choral Competition, without competing. The next day Chonev arranged for the board to meet Mr Colomer from Spain, a jury member, who turned out to chair the jury at Cantonigròs; he explained the character of the set pieces and how to pronounce the Catalan text. But the travel money was still missing – the choir’s chairman, a member of the executive committee, had refused to provide it. Only on 3 July, after another meeting with Chonev, were 23,000 leva transferred to the choir’s account, and payment orders of 19,250 leva for RORO and 15,000 leva for DAP were lodged. On 5 July the choir was auditioned by a panel from the Centre for Amateur Arts – Svetla Racheva, Zahari Mednikarov, Veneta Vicheva and V. Rangelov.

On 12 July the group left two hours late, waiting for D. Yaneva with the passports and the women’s costumes, and at 4 p.m. boarded the ferry in Burgas. The Bosphorus was crossed at night, and on board the sections rehearsed in half of the dining room – to the annoyance of some passengers. A concert on 15 July, delayed by a safety drill, was not one of the best; voices were tired and Chonev banned the beach. On 17 July the choir landed in Barcelona, and at Cantonigròs the singers were lodged with families in the village of Roda de Ter and rehearsed in a meadow at the edge of a wood.

At the opening, with no competition pieces, the choir was greeted with ovations. On 19 July it sang its mixed-choir competition programme – the singers calm and confident, and the surprise of a juror who kept checking the pitch of “Theme and Variations” did not go unnoticed. In the afternoon the women’s choir took the stage in new costumes. That evening in Roda de Ter the choir’s concert began only at midnight, after a Turkish group’s programme, and ended with a certificate from the mayor.

The next morning the guide broke the news: two first prizes – for mixed choir and for women’s choir in the polyphony category. The folk programme went somehow “more routinely” and brought second place, behind an academic choir from Brazil. On 20 July the choir sang in the church of Sant Joan de les Abadesses – despite the echo the concert went better than expected before a large audience – and Chonev discussed possible exchange visits with the Brazilian conductor. The book also reproduces the Cantonigròs festival diploma (18–21 July 1985).