New singers and a tour to Idar-Oberstein (1987–1988)

The board had to choose between an exchange invitation from the Grubscher choir of Idar-Oberstein and an invitation to the international competition in Tours, France. As most of the singers were new and “not yet settled”, Idar-Oberstein was accepted; Dora Yaneva took the papers to Sofia so that the choir could be included in the committee’s plan for 1988. Money was tight – the account was empty, the municipality at first refused funds, and staff fees and large telephone bills were due; later it transferred 2,000 leva and the rest of the grant. On 5 November the choir sang in Balchik at a concert for the October Revolution, and on 22 December its New Year concert in the House of Amateur Arts was a great success but poorly attended – which the author puts down to the New Year bustle.

In January 1988 mostly young women were admitted, while young men moved up from the boys’ choir into the men’s sections; at one rehearsal a short portrait of Stoyan Boychev was presented for his 60th birthday. A concert in Shumen planned for 2 March was cancelled. On 17 March 1988 chairman Georgi Mihov stepped down at his own request, and Hristo Stoyanov was dismissed for a careless attitude and many absences. On 25 March a warm spring evening was held with the Kamchiyska Liliya choir. In April Chonev and R. Shtereva prepared the Varna Boys’ and Youth Choir for an international competition in Belgium; on 21 April, after the young men’s concert, a short ceremony marked the 32nd anniversary of Morski Zvutsi, with an address by M. Dimitrova.

After 9 May work began on Beethoven’s Mass in C major together with the Dobrudzhanski Zvutsi choir of Tolbukhin and the Rodna Pesen choir of Shumen. On 24 May there was no traditional procession; the programme honouring the Slavonic enlighteners was given on a stage outside the municipality on Deveti Septemvri Square, with Morski Zvutsi and the opera chorus singing from its steps. In June the singers who had joined in 1985–1987 were auditioned. From 24 June to 4 July the choir hosted a children’s choir from Czechoslovakia; their concert on 30 June (the date set around their pianist Jiří Klemeš) was poorly attended, even though the choir itself had bought tickets for its families. Chonev outlined the tasks for the next season: the 12th zonal round of the National Festival, the Beethoven Mass at the music festival in Ruse in February, and the tour of West Germany, for which each singer contributed 100 leva. On 7 July the season ended.

On 18 September 1988 the choir left Varna by train. In Idar-Oberstein it was met by singers and the board of the Grubscher choir, led by the conductor Theo Fürst; after speeches of welcome, attended by the mayor, the guests were lodged in private homes. On 23 September the first concert, shared with the hosts, was given in the House of Culture of the village of Obshtede; the second, in the Festival Hall of Idar-Oberstein, drew stormy applause. The third, in the church of the village of Rayenbach, in damp and cold weather, was the weakest. There followed an outing to the old city of Trier and the journey home; the singers had a break until 6 October.

Chonev rated the first two concerts highly and the third as unsatisfactory, naming among the causes the singers’ upset over the “escape” of Ekrem Isufov, and the cold. He praised R. Shtereva as a fine interpreter but admitted that the choir was not yet mature – perhaps three quarters of its singers had only one or two years’ experience, though there was no divide between old and new. Shtereva noted poor discipline during the trip. Part of the concert fees went on a DEK tape recorder and cassettes for the choir.