First concerts and a first medal (1957–1963)

Singers had been admitted without any voice test, so an audition was held on 26 December 1956, after which only the weakest voices left. Over the winter and spring of 1957 Chonev prepared a demanding repertoire: Emanuil Manolov’s “Workers’ March”, Dobri Hristov’s “Goro le zelena”, Aleksandar Krastev’s “Shto mi ne dohozhdash”, Hristo Manolov’s “Harvesters”, Svetoslav Obretenov’s “Komsomol Song”, Georgi Dimitrov’s “The Titmouse’s Wedding”, Schumann’s “Gypsies”, Brahms’s “Lullaby”, Tchaikovsky’s “Nightingale” and the villagers’ chorus from Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride”.

After its first appearance on 30 April 1957, on 7 June 1957 the choir gave its first full concert in Varna’s packed Drama Theatre – twelve choral songs plus songs and arias by soloists from the choir. That same day G. Velikov wrote in the newspaper Narodno Delo that “the audience now has its say”. A week later Mihail Boev reviewed the concert in detail: the choir had appeared as a mixed choir (100 singers) and a women’s choir; he praised the altos, the clean intonation and clear diction, noted the lack of high tenors and true basses, and credited the success above all to the young conductor, whose gesture was “modest and economical, yet expressive”.

In 1958 the voice teacher Mimi Dimova joined the choir, working with individual singers and giving concerts with them every year; on 21 March 1962 her soloists presented a programme of Italian songs. The accompanist Alis Sirakyan, because of her age, moved to the choir’s vocal studio (until 1964), and in 1959 Petar Vitanov took over – a pianist of the first rank who became a close adviser to the conductor.

In 1959 the “barely three-year-old” choir, now called Morski Zvutsi, appeared at the First National Festival in the Bulgaria Hall in Sofia and came home with second place among mixed choirs and a silver medal. Concerts across the country followed – from Tolbukhin (today Dobrich), Provadia and Balchik to Plovdiv, Ruse, Vidin and Shumen; in Plovdiv the choir sang at the People’s Army House and in the 24 May procession, then went on to Blagoevgrad.

At the Festival of Song and Dance held in Varna in 1962, the artistic committee ranked the choir among the best in the country. In 1963 the choir was awarded the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 1st class, and Marin Chonev the same order, 3rd class. On 5 June 1963 L. Palazova described that year’s concert as proof of the ensemble’s growing mastery – from Dobri Hristov’s “Rachenitsa” and Zdravko Manolov’s “Tarantella” to Bartók, Bárdos, Handel’s “Messiah” and Konrad Mann’s “Song from the Death Camp”.