The Bulgarian Sredets chamber choir marks its 40th anniversary in 2013. The choir is popular across the world with its repertoire of Eastern Orthodox and Western religious chants. Among the aims of professor Alexander Kuyumdzhiev and Eliana Zaharieva who manage the choir, is presenting works by modern Bulgarian composers, too. Currently there are 20 men and women performing in the choir. “When the choir was established most of the singers were students," Professor Kuyumdzhiev explains. "They used to sing in a children’s choir before and wanted to continue developing in the music sphere. We named the choir “Sredets” as our repertoire consisted mainly of medieval and Eastern Orthodox music. A number of world famous opera singers worked in our choir. We are very proud with Lachezar Pruvchev who is kammersänger of the Hanover Opera,” he says. The Sredets choir has a number of international awards. It has participated in the famous festival in Gorizia (Italy), the choir competition in Varna, the renowned festival for Eastern Orthodox music in Hajnówka, Poland and others. The choir even has an award from the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture. In 2011 Sredets took part in an art festival in Beijing. This year the choir received another invitation for a festival in China. Professor Kuyumdzhiev did not hide his joy that a growing number of young people enjoy the work of the choir. “We have had concerts before children from various schools and they all showed interest in this type of music. I think that children should be urged to perform in choirs from an early age. This does not require special preparation,” professor Kuyumdzhiev says. One of the projects of the choir in 2012 was called History in Music. The project included Bulgarian vocal art from the 11th century. The earliest Christian music in Bulgaria dates back to this period. The project also presented more modern music. “Thanks to the Sofia Municipality we managed to realize a number of projects. Some of them included series of concerts while others included lectures. These forums have taken place in the Sofia University, The National Library, and the City Art Gallery. These performances are also related to the application of Sofia for a European capital of culture in 2019. In the past years, the choir continues to develop. We have active concert activity and continue to release albums on the market.” <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Sredets+Chamber+Choir">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.