The second US tour and the end of the century (2000–2001)

On 28 April 2000 the choir sang Verdi’s Requiem with the chorus and orchestra of the Varna Opera and Philharmonic Society, with soloists Tatyana Shivarova, Boyka Vasileva, Kaludi Kaludov and Nikola Gyuzelev and conductor Hristo Ignatov. A conducting course was also held that year, ending with a concert on 30 May at the Art Gallery. On 24 June, at Varna Summer, the choir performed Bach’s Cantata 150 with the Varna Philharmonic, soloists Violeta Shahanova, Dimitar Kyurkchiev and Evgeni Ganev and conductor Georgi Dimitrov, and the a cappella concert of 7 July was conducted entirely by Rositsa Shtereva.

The second US tour ran from 9 to 23 October 2000 in the southeastern states, and almost everywhere the choir gave two concerts a day. It began on 10 October in Atlanta – for school students and in a Presbyterian church; then came Albany and Alpharetta in Georgia (one concert during a liturgy in a Greek Orthodox church), Holy Trinity Cathedral in Birmingham, Alabama, on 13 October, a service at St Paul’s Episcopal Church and a concert in a Methodist church in Franklin, Tennessee, Lipscomb University, Cumberland University in Lebanon, concerts in Lexington (South Carolina), Eygans (Georgia) and at the University of South Carolina’s school of music, and Poulenc’s “Gloria” at the Koger Center in Columbia. On 22 October the choir sang in a Greek Orthodox church in Columbia and finished at the Presbyterian church in Ashland.

The overall impressions are summed up in a letter to Prof. Chonev from Larry Wyatt of the University of South Carolina (30 October 2000): the hosts had nothing but rave reviews for the impeccable intonation, wide dynamic range and absolute precision, and the American songs by Bernstein and Dawson had been especially liked. In Cherno More of 29 October 2000, Dimitrina Ninova, a Bulgarian living in America, wrote in “Morski Zvutsi brought Columbia to its feet” of “a great celebration of Bulgarian song”: the singers and their leaders – Marin Chonev, his assistant and the interpreter – were met with extraordinary interest, and elderly people rose to their feet “in honour of Bulgaria”.

The last concert of the year was “Together on New Year’s Night” on 20 December at the House of Arts, where Milko Kolarov’s Christmas suite “Kitni gosti – koledari” (Festive guests – carol singers) was performed with the music school orchestra conducted by the composer. On 8 January 2001 the newspaper Cherno More published its list of “The hundred Varna people of the past century”, in which Marin Chonev’s name took a worthy place beside those of Aleksandar Krastev and Dobri Hristov.