Back in Seattle

Some of us have returned home and others are still exploring new places. Either way, we hope to continue to blogging as we recover from jet lag (takes about a week) and pick up the pieces of life here in Seattle.

Personally I've been through a lot of medical stuff in this past week, which I postponed so I could go to Bulgaria. I'll come out of in a few days.

To tide you over, here are photos of Jen and I sighing over an espresso vending machine at 5 am in the Sofia airport, and ooh-ing over our duty-free chocolates in the Frankfurt airport.

Patalenitsa festival/Sofia

Jen here. We performed in Patalenitsa, which our friend who has a daughter-in-law in Seattle informs us is the "Orange County" of Pazardzhik. There are nice properties and the mayor of Pazardzhik lives here (about 20 min. outside the center). It may be like Orange County as far as property values go, but I'm pretty sure there are no toilets like the one I experienced anywhere near Orange County!  We'll save you all the details, but as we neared the end of our trip, we were so happy to find restrooms with the basics: they flush, they're stocked with TP, there's soap, and a sink with running water. Any time we find one with all four, one of us shouts to the rest of the group, "It's a good one!"  

Here is where we performed, shortly after a giant thunderstorm. There were freshly fried doughnuts, 10 for 2 leva, which we devoured with powdered sugar before our performance.

It was such a thrill to perform for a small village -- everyone was gathered there. Smiling Bulgarian grandmothers, children, theater students visiting from England -- everyone was very welcoming. They seemed most pleased at our joint performance with the Pazardzhik Ensemble, Tzvetanka & Ivan. 

Our friend Sisi (Silvia) sang with her band, and Tzvetanka joined her on some duets.  The whole village joined in on one giant pravo, which I don't have a photo of because I was in it, too! 

Here are our friends from the Pazardzhik ensemble - sisters, who instead of being called Dolce & Gabbana, are jokingly referred to as Jordanche y Gergana, for their excellent fashion sense. 

At the end of the festival, we had dinner at a fancy hotel with a pool, and joked and laughed with our new friends in the Pazardzhik ensemble, amid clouds of cigarette smoke. The singer with the highest voice remarked, "If you smoke only at dinner, it'll make your voice higher!" If that were actually true, maybe we could all join the Pazardzhik ensemble! ;) 

We received wonderful gifts from Yanka, their director, but the most wonderful gift was sitting next to these powerful singers and learning from their vocal technique while learning songs together.  We're so grateful we got to work with them and hope to meet again soon! 

Next, we returned to Sofia. We did our final errands, like mailing postcards to our IndieGogo donors, and getting final souvenirs and sladolet (ice cream). 

We had a workshop with Binka Dobreva, who taught us some amazing Shope songs (all 3 sung at the same time!) 

We had the Last Supper, with snezhanka salad (also called Snow White salad, made with cucumbers, dill, onion & thick yogurt), lutenitsa (tomato & cheese sauce), bean salad, our final Shopska Salata, and grilled trout on the BBQ. I'm happy to report that I did indeed have Shopska salad every single day of our trip (14/14!) There were also chile relleno-esque stuffed peppers with egg & sirene cheese. So good! 

We were joined for dinner by the same musicians who played for us on our first night in Sofia, with the addition of Sasho on accordion, and Binka's lovely voice. 

Tzvetanka and Ivan had to leave for Burgas, so we were fortunate to have their friends take care of us on our last night in Bulgaria together.  Now, five of us are on our way back home with the Happiest Traveler. 

Many thanks to everyone who helped us get here, supported us from afar, and who await our return... Especially Scott, Dunes, Rik, Brian & Lydia, Rusty, Jon, David, Stuart, and Peter.

Singing with the Pazardzhik Ensemble Choir

Dina here. The last three days we've spent in Pazardzhik, Tzvetanka's home town, and made a dream of mine come true: Singing with the women's choir of the Pazardzhik Ensemble. Tzvetanka used to direct this choir when she lived here, and is still a respected guest teacher when she's in town. I got to visit a workshop she did with them two years ago, and was so blown away by the sound of these women that I decided I needed to somehow connect them with Dunava.

So here we are! For the past three days we've been rehearsing together, lead by Tzetze, learning new songs and synching up a couple we all know to sing together. The goal was to perform at the annual village festival in Patalenitsa nearby, but the end was secondary -- the means was the actual point. Just sitting next to these talented singers with strong voices was an education in itself. These women are professional in the truest sense -- they rehearse four hours a day, five days a week, and are paid. (We're told the salary is not high enough to make a living, so all singers have other jobs, teaching or performing with other groups, or non-musical professions.)

This is such a great highlight of our trip. We've heard many true "village" ensembles, who preserve the music and singing in its traditional form; and here is a professional ensemble, which turns the village-style music into a refined art form. The original style is preserved, but the voice is trained. Plus, the multi-part arrangements are stunning, and there's nothing like singing a chord of stacked major and minor seconds and holding it at full volume!

We also had Tzvetanka to ourselves for a couple hours, where she talked more about Bulgarian singing technique and style, taught a four-part arrangement of a popular Shope duet, and at the same time bounced Eleanor so Meredith could focus on singing:

And outside of rehearsal there were other adventures: A visit to Plovdiv, a visit to the Pazardzhik zoo, some shopping, lots of ice cream (Raffy is our favorite brand!)... and of course the festival in Patalenitsa! I wonder who will blog next... :-)

Kyustendil's Silver Buckle Festival: Sreburna Pufta

Ramona writing: 

July 24th marked our debut performance at a Bulgarian festival. We were invited to attend the 10th annual International Folklore Festival "Silver Buckle" in Kyustendil. For this appearance, we are very grateful to have received at travel grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Three cheers for arts funding! (And again, thank you, to our private donors who helped us accomplish this great feat).

The drive from Bansko to Kyustendil was long and all the ladies were quite tired when we arrived. As we drove into Kyustendil it was rumored that we would visit with the Pautalia Chetalishte as they were the cultural center organizing the festival, however, as we were slightly late in arriving, it was happily decided that we would first eat lunch. The festival director himself, Valentine Kenov, as well as our festival liaison from the chetalishte and municipality, Ludmila "Lucy" Cheresharka, led us directly to our meal. It was served quicker than any other meal we have yet had and for that, we were quite grateful. Once we were shown to our hotel and given a moment to refresh and change into our performance clothing, we again hopped on the bus and gathered with all the other international performers. We all paraded through town and ended at the stage where the performances were held. All the other international groups were both musicians and dancers. This year the other international performers were from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Turkey. We were the only choir group given the privilege of opening the festival!  Also, we are the first American group to perform there. The remainder of the choirs and dance groups who did not parade were from all over Bulgaria and they performed over the course of the next few days.

 The sun was bright, we were sweating profusely, and the sound system was not optimal. However, the songs we chose to sing surprised the audience and caught their attention so that despite the heat and poorer than expected sound, they were really engaged. Once, when we looked at the audience, we recognized the vice-mayor singing along as well as many other faces in the crowd. They enjoyed our "Shopski Pripevki" (medley from the Shope area) so much that there was clapping before the song even finished. Of all the songs we sang, this set of songs has ornamentation and melodies which are closest to the Kyustendil region's traditional songs. The audience really seemed to enjoy this in particular. One lady found us afterward and mentioned how excited she was to have seen us on TV earlier and then to realized that we had come in person to Kyustendil. It makes us feel like celebrities :) Dina was interviewed by one TV station and two other reporters after the parade finished and before the festival officially opened. We have been so busy that we have yet to see the filmed footage of this interview and our actual performance but the camera crew was there broadcasting all along.

 After we sang, we were presented with a very special award which you can see above and below. This is what a "Pafta" or "buckle" looks like and ours is quite heavy! The hosts of the festival were moved by our singing and we were so pleased to have sung well. When they presented the honor to us, everyone was very touched and emotional. Thank goodness our voices were still strong after so much intense traveling.

After we finished singing we were able to meet some of the other performance groups. Jen, in particular, made a potential connection with the group "Kargi" from Tbilisi, Georgia. I was most interested in connecting with the group "Karposh" from Krival Palanka, Macedonia in hopes that we would be able to perform at their home festival. Lucy, our liaison, also turns out to be a wonderful connection. She and Tsvetanka both studied at Kotel together, though they were a few years apart, and while we did not know this when we applied to perform at this festival, meeting her will hopefully be a great boon for us in the future. Dina met with the vice-mayor and her secretary at a special breakfast the following morning. All-in-all, it was a fabulous experience and we are so glad to have this opportunity to share our music with this audience. Thank you, MidAtlantic Arts Foundation and Pautalia Chetalishte's Sreburna Pafta!

Bansko (part 2)

Jen here. Here is the view from Bansko. As Hila mentioned, it's ski resort town, which at this time of year is pretty deserted. We managed to find an open market down the street from us in the pouring rain, and my Shopska Salata for the day was a very ripe tomato and some sirene cheese. 

Dinner with Banski Starcheta was delicious -- foodwise and musicwise! I missed the workshop, so I was even more excited to hear them perform for us... Especially the acappella songs with close, close harmony. I thought about Steve Borzilleri back home who would have enjoyed hearing these powerful men with loud, strong voices. He probably would have joined in and would have been appreciated for his bold voice! 

Dinner finished at a reasonable hour, so we walked around Bansko square and found more traditional musicians playing in an outdoor restaurant. We danced around lawn statues of mushrooms and trolls. The owner of the restaurant gave me a flag to lead the dance with that said, "Freedom or death!"  

Ramona and I continued dancing with the musicians, tipped them, and had a chat with them afterwards. They told Ramona that she danced very well and in the true Bulgarian style, which is accurate -- we've seen her beautiful dancing all over Bulgaria! 

This is the bell tower in Bansko square. If you look closely, you can see a stork nest in the upper left corner. We have been seeing storks everywhere! 

Here is a picture of the market that Hila mentioned that was between Tsigov Chark and Bansko. Bon bons galore! 

The Littlest Dunavite

Meredith here! Bringing a four month old baby along on a choir tour to Bulgaria was a bit of a gamble, to say the least. Friends and family expressed surprise, concern, tut-tuts and shakes of the head. However, I am happy to report that bringing Eleanor along has enriched our experience of Bulgaria in ways I don't think any of us could have predicted. A baby is a natural ice breaker. We are humanized and made approachable just by having her around, and she provides fodder for conversation in our somewhat shaky Bulgarian. Some useful words and phrases I have learned:

Chetiri mesetsa – four months (old)

Spi (spinka) – sleeping (sleepy, diminutive)

Momiche – girl

Sladko e – how sweet

I also discovered that superstition is very much alive and part of the culture here. The idea that many eyes are on baby Eleanor is cause for concern, because of the chance that this may attract the attention of evil spirits. In order to protect her, our new friends have offered many charms: a piece of red string tied round her wrist, a lengthy blessing, and countless "ptu, ptu, ptus."

With the help of Ivan, Tzvetanka, Tedy's sister Didi, and several others, there has always been a ready pair of arms to hold Eleanor so I am able to participate in the concerts and workshops. That's not to say that I haven't done some singing while wearing her in the carrier, but everyone has been so helpful taking turns with her.

Changing dirty diapers has sometimes been challenging. Some of the interesting places this has occurred include on the lap of a friend on a moving bus, under a public staircase, and on the floor in the middle of a workshop. All successful!

Our bus driver is one of Eleanor's biggest fans. "Dedo" (Grandpa) Neno sings her a special little song, we will try to record it to share with you. She always has smiles for him. In fact, Eleanor has been all smiles with everyone she meets. She has already received several gifts. Though she won't remember this amazing adventure, she has certainly helped make it memorable for all of us.

 

 

Bansko

Hila here. Yesterday we left Tsigov Chark and headed to Bansko. On the way we stopped at an outdoor market selling dainty wild strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry preserves, honey flavored with pine and mint and nuts, fresh blueberries and raspberries, and jars of sharena sol, fancy colorful Bulgarian salt.

Bansko is a ski town at the foot of the majestic Pirin mountains. For our northwest readers, it's reminiscent of Whistler or Leavenworth -- except the buildings of downtown Bansko are actually centuries old. Here's the view from Dina and my hotel room:

In the afternoon we attended a workshop with Atanas "Nasko" Yanchovichin, the director of Banski Starcheta. The name of the group translates to "The Old Men of Bansko," but some of them are quite young. We learned Rasti Bore and Drago mi e mome, two songs in the unique Bansko style -- one person on melody and the rest droning. I can't wait to add these songs to Dunava's repertoire and share them with Seattle audiences (as a reminder, our first formal opportunity for that will be November 8th 2014 at Town Hall, so please save the date!).

After the workshop, Banski Starcheta serenaded us at dinner.

On a (personal) musical note: I love complex choral pieces. One of the things that drew me to Dina's project in 2005 was the arrangements. I am always thrilled by one-person-per part, tight harmony singing with lots of crunchy chords. I've been collecting these kinds of arrangements -- the Kutevs and Ljondevs and Mutafchievs -- while we've been here. But I am also feeling like I finally understand the village sound that is their inspiration. Hearing each group display its unique regional sound has been an invaluable part of this trip -- so thank you again to everyone who made it possible.