Budapest, a gold medal and a first international competition (1963–1966)

In 1963 the choir toured Budapest and became the first amateur choir to record for Radio Budapest. Encouraged, the singers began preparing for the Second National Festival with a small number of exceptionally difficult pieces – Prof. Georgi Dimitrov’s “Ballad of the Communist” and Lyubomir Pipkov’s “Spring Wind”. The artistic council auditioned everyone again, thinking also of the choir’s future: of 120 singers, 83 remained. The parting was painful, but the singers accepted it as necessary, and each one’s personal responsibility grew.

At the regional festival in the spring of 1964, with choirs from Varna and the Tolbukhin, Shumen and Silistra districts, Morski Zvutsi emerged as the clear favourite. Prof. Georgi Dimitrov wrote in Narodno Delo (7 April 1964) that the sound had become “beautiful, ringing, bright” and the choir’s musicianship unrecognisable. On 12 July 1964, in the Bulgaria Hall, the choir drew ovations and this time came home from the festival with a gold medal; it also sang in the closing concert and the closing ceremony.

That year Marin Chonev brought talented students from the Dobri Hristov State Music School into the choir, and Elisaveta Kaludzhinova became the soloists’ accompanist (Alis Sirakyan had settled in Paris). As a reward the choir visited Odesa and gave a concert at the Transport Workers’ House. In 1965 its season premiere took place in the new hall of Varnenska Komuna, and on 26 and 29 April 1966, for its 10th anniversary, the choir sang eleven new songs.

In June 1966 a tour of Dresden was already arranged when an invitation came to an international competition in Wilton, England. The set piece, Byrd’s “Alleluia”, was learned on the train to Dresden and during the stay there, with the choir split into four sections led also by the guest conductors Petko Mechkov and Milko Dimitrov. Given such short preparation, fourth place in the choir’s first international competition was hailed as a new achievement for Bulgarian choral art.

In 1966 Dimitar Demirov joined as assistant conductor, and Yordanka Shishkova set up the country’s first sight-singing school attached to an amateur choir. Their help freed Chonev to concentrate on interpretation. The same year saw the start of the May Choral Festival, conceived as a national event, which later won wide international renown; although other Varna choirs took part, Morski Zvutsi established itself as its host.