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Bulgarian folk music creates great interest throughout the world. The concerts given by Bulgarian ensembles are received with enthusiastic applause, and in some countries amateur groups are created in which Bulgarian folk music is learned and performed.

Gega New has already released albums of two such folk groups: Topolovo Orchestra from France (GD 148) and Balkan Transit from Denmark (GD 311). We now present to our listeners the wonderful recordings of Cubrica Ensemble from the Netherlands.

Cubrica Ensemble was created in 2003 by the Bulgarian singer Galina Durmushliyska and producer Jaap van Beelen of Etnic Foundation, the Netherlands. They had previously worked with a female choir, but now the choir is mixed. The Dutch choir conductor Ivo Boswijk was invited to conduct the new choir. The repertoire that the ensemble presents is a real challenge. There is minimal choir literature for mixed choir in Bulgarian folklore style; songs have been written mainly for women’s choirs. The ensemble collaborates with some Bulgarian composers (Gencho Genchev, Patar Krumov, Milcho Vassilev, etc.), who composed the songs especially for the ensemble. Ivo Boswijk and Galina Durmushliyska made the arrangements for mixed choir of some authentic folk songs from different regions of Bulgaria. They also include some works that have already become classics in the folk genre.

The Godini, Godini programme presents the Bulgarian traditional ritual calendar. It begins with Christmas songs and finishes with the autumn festivities. When performed on the stage, the musicians sing and play and video images show different scenes of Bulgarian culture. The audience is thus taken on a journey through the music, nature and ancient monuments of Bulgaria. The premiere of the show was on 10 April 2005 in the Korzo Theatre in The Hague. It created great interested and was received very enthusiastically by the audience.

In order to get acquainted with the country where the songs originated, the performers visited Bulgaria. At the invitation of the Philip Koutev School for Folk Music , the ensemble presented the programme in the town of Kotel and its vicinity (May 2005). Their next Bulgarian tour was in October 2005 and was instigated by the municipality of Blagoevgrad and the Pirin Ensemble. In 2006 they took part in the New Bulgarian Music Festival in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. After the concert they were invited by the Foundation of Intercultural Dialogue in Vidin and the surrounding area and it was in connection with this third tour that the CD album was recorded. The tours they made encouraged the ensemble to develop a new project, Kontrasti, Kontrasti, which will have its premiere in 2008.
Cubrica has achieved a tremendous amount since 2003. The ensemble has gone far beyond its humble amateur beginning, and developed its own sound. When they perform they succeed in creating the atmosphere of a real folklore festivity.

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