London Bulgarian Choir

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The London Bulgarian Choir is a London-based amateur choir, specialising in Bulgarian folk music. Dessislava Stefanova has led the choir since its formation in 2000. Primarily a performing choir, the LBC perform a dozen or more concerts a year.

They are Open Category winners of BBC Radio 3's Choir of the Year, 2006^[1]. Their 2005 tour of Bulgaria ^[2] was covered in a full-page article in Songlines^[3] and was filmed for Bulgarian television. The choir sang the Bulgarian version of the python classic "I am a lumberjack and I don't care" on the soundtrack for the The Virgin Queen, which won an Ivor Novello award ^[4]; and have taken part in London-based events such as the Exhibition Road Music Day^[5], the Streatham Festival^[6], and the London Jazz Festival^[7]. Composer and animateur Orlando Gough has used the choir in central roles for the performances Singing River^[8] at the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall and Shouting Gallery^[9] in the National Portrait Gallery. Outside London, the choir have taken part in the Rye Arts Festival^[10], the Swaledale Festival^[11], and the Nadder Music Café^[12].

Part of the choir sang with British Sea Power on Later... with Jools Holland^[13] in January 2008. Dessislava Stefanova was the featured guest on Radio 3's The Choir ^[14] with Aled Jones in February 2007, and presented Bulgaria's Voice^[15] on Radio 3 in 2005; both programs included recordings of the choir in performance. Sections of the choir have contributed to soundtracks for Troy^[16] and The Virgin Queen^[17].