The Academic Choir Manolov (Sofia, Bulgaria) was founded in 1933 by Maestro Angel Manolov and it is one of the first students`choirs in Bulgaria. During its more than 80-years existence the Academic Choir has performed 4000+ concerts in Bulgaria and 350+ abroad. Since 1998, choir’s conductor is Darena Popova.
Soprano: Adelina Georgieva, Anguelina Stoyanova, Daniela Sharankova, Denitsa Georgieva, Diana Docheva, Diana Ganevska, Dilyana Ganevska, Enita Enikova, Mariya Uzunova, Mina Varbanova, Petya Hristova, Rositsa Dimitrova, Tania Pencheva, Tatyana Slavova, Tatyana Todorova, Zlatka Dikova – Alto: Adriana Zotova, Aneliya Deneva, Antoaneta Victorova, Boriana Harabejan, Irina Kostandinova, Irina Rabcheva, Iva Nikolova, Liliva Kirilova, Marieta Vassileva, Marta Mitova, Petya Ivanova, Petya Milanova, Rumiana Nikolova, Yuliyana Kacharova – Tenor: Anatloiy Georgiev, Anis Ali, Anton Tachev, Emil Sokolov, Georgi Nachev, Hristo Haralampiev, Krikor Petoyan, Robert Vahsen, Toma Nikolov – Baritone: Alexander Dimitrov, Daniel Bonchev, Dimitar Paunov, Ivan Kolarov, Kiril Grancharov, Mario Katcharov – Bass: Encho Dinev, Georgi Georgiev, Hristo Petkanov, Kostandin Mitsev, Marian Neychev.
Piano accompanist: Monica Gvozdeva
Assistant: Vlad Christoff
The choir is a laureate of a number of first prizes and gold medals, diplomas and honors from choir festivals and competitions. On July 2015, the Choir received a new award at the International Festival for Choirs “Gavriil Musicescu” in Bulgaria (full list of previous international appearances and prizes).
Students from all higher educational institutions in Sofia manifest their musical talents there. In the period since 1933 until nowadays over 4100 students have been members of the choir, 250 of them have chosen music as their profession. Among them are the well-known throughout the opera singers: Boris Christov, Margarita lilova, Aleksandrina Milcheva and others.
The sincerity of the young singers captures in audience and brings it to the enjoyment from a direct contact with music. The repertoire of the Academic Choir includes a wide variety of compositions from different periods and styles: Bulgarian and Russian works for choir, Slavonic Orthodox chants, West European classical works as well as various pieces by contemporary composers from different countries.
Since 1998, the Choir’s conductor is Mrs. Darena Popova