Kotel (part 2)

Jen here. Jill posted her version of Kotel and here is mine!

We had a wonderful time in Kotel, at the Filip Kutev music school up in the mountains. Tedy, Ivan, and Tzvetanka were all there as students once upon a time. The school is for students in 8th-12th grades, all studying music. There is a lot of history in the courtyard and in those mountains... I can imagine classes of gadulka and gaida players out on the terrace throughout the years. Apparently, there is always music happening at the school, at all hours. Kind of like at Mendocino Balkan camp, but for the entire year round!

Yesterday, we had four hours of private lessons back to back with the Abagar quartet singers (Nevjana, Dijana, Dessislava and Sofia), plus Sashka Chenkova. We had two evening workshops with Sashka where we learned some really beautiful songs that will no doubt make it into our Nov. concert at Seattle's Town Hall. In our private lessons, we worked on Rhodope, Shope, and Thracian style singing. It was wonderful to hear familiar voices singing new & beautiful things -- it wafted out the windows of the music hall and commingled in the courtyard. Breakfast was brought in for us into the school, since it is not in session. We had "malinki", which is the Kotel word for bread that is in little bites with powdered sugar. There were also fresh tomatoes & sirene cheese (so good!), Bulgarian yogurt, jam, and sausage. Our hosts supplied everything we needed and were so happy to have us visit the school.

In other news, I've been very happy to see the cats running about town... There were even two in the outdoor pizza place where we had dinner last night. The Bulgarian version of pizza is pretty close to the American one, but the cheese is delightfully rich, and of course, we had traditional Bulgarian salads with our pizzas. I've made it my personal goal to have Shopska Salata (Shopski salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and feta) every day that I'm here, and yesterday I was 7/7. I may never eat tomatoes back home in Seattle after eating them here. So delicious!

Perhaps the best part of our time in Kotel was that not only did we get to learn challenging and interesting songs from talented singers, but we also got to rest! We took long walks down the hill to dinner (including a stop at the convenience store for local chocolate & ice cream, of course) and we were able to get some sleep. Everyone was happy not to have to travel anywhere in the van. Now we're in the van on our way to Tsigov Chark, where we'll see Ensemble Boyana in concert and have dinner with them.