^Past appearances, participations, concerts and tours^
📺 On December 23, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia once again was a guest in the Bulgaria Morning broadcast on Bulgaria on Air TV to talk about our achievements over the past year and to sing in the acoustically beautiful studio of the television. We heard touching words from Kalina Hadzhikoseva about her intimate experiences as a chorister with us, and Maria Stoeva spoke about the customs and traditions of the Christmas holidays. Our conductor Ivaylo Hristov spoke about some rarely recognized achievements of our country from more than 100 years ago in preserving and cultivating Bulgarian cultural identity, and he also presented the new songs of the ensemble. The hosts, as you will see, were sincerely captivated by our performances!
✅ On December 20, 2025, on the stage in the park in front of the Mladost Municipality, the Female Folk Choir Sofia took part in the festive outdoor Christmas program.
✅ On December 19, 2025, Friday, in the hall of the John Atanasov Community Center, the concert Folk Voices for Christmas took place, in which, in addition to the hosts from the Female Folk Choir Sofia and the Mi~rina Music school, our guests and friends also took part. The evening was memorable with the wonderful performances of the graduates of Victoria Mirina and the singers from the Sofia Choir, with our new songs causing ovations in the hall.
✅ On Thursday, December 18, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia opened the Christmas concert of the St. Ivan Rilski 1926 Community Center in the village of German with six folk songs for a three-part a cappella choir. The audience welcomed us warmly and we were invited to visit German again.
📺 As an award accompanying our gold medal from the 2025 Chickling Sings National Competition, the Female Folk Choir Sofia was invited to sing several songs for the folklore TV show Eternal Songs of Bulgaria on Eurocom TV, which aired on Sunday, November 30. Listen to our songs, sung live in the studio: Vredna Duda from the village of Gorni Koriten, Kyustendil region, and Zaksala Kruna from the village of Slishovtsi, Tran region, arranged by our conductor Ivaylo Hristov, and Zadyavka from the region of Godech, arranged for our choir by Georgi Genov.
👉 On November 14, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia organized a celebration on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founder of the choir, Mrs. Maria Stoeva. In the hall of the John Atanasoff Community Center, we welcomed our dear guests, friends and benefactors of our choir, all of whom were impressed by the dedication of the jubilee to the work of developing and caring for the amateur women's singing collective over the years. The celebration took on an even more festive character with the presence among our guests of Mrs. Svetla Karadjova, who, as chairwoman of the organizing committee for the Chickling Sings National Competition, used the occasion to personally present Mrs. Stoeva with our gold medal from the last edition of the competition. For everyone who honored the holiday of Maria, and our choir, we sang from the heart both our old and newest songs. And after the abundant treat, as etiquette requires, late in the evening we helped the birthday girl with her gifts. Happy birthday, Maria! Sing your heart out for many more years on stage with us!
✅ On November 1, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia participated in the celebration of the Mladost 1971 Community Center in Mladost district on the occasion of the Awakeners' Day in Bulgaria. We opened the program and sung six songs, most of which were original arrangements by our conductor Ivaylo Hristov, received standing ovations from the enthusiastic audience.
🥇 The Female Folk Choir Sofia was awarded a gold medal for its participation in the Chickling SingsNational Competition held at the end of October 2025 in Sofia.
✅ On October 21, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia opened a modest celebration of the GERB Party in Mladost municipality. In front of our long-time friend and benefactor in critical situations, the MP Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova, we performed part of our program, which we had just presented in Italy and France.
🔔 In early October 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia took part in the prestigious World Folklore Festival Code d'Azure 2025 in France and Italy. In the cities of San Remo, Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo, and Diano Marina, we presented a program of Bulgarian folk songs from all ethnographic regions of our country in arrangements by Stefan Kunev, Georgi Ganev, Georgi Andreev and Ivaylo Hristov. Our a cappella program was enthusiastically received everywhere, both by the large audience and by the other festival participants, who gathered from all over Europe.
✅ On September 24, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia sung in the opening ceremony of the ETHSofia conference 2025, held in the John Atanasoff Hall of Sofia Tech Park. Before the audience dived into the otherwise serious and somewhat boring technological topics, our choir brought a touch of humor to the matter.
✅ On June 12, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia performed at the Annual Concert of the Badnina 1982 community center. Along with its repertoire songs, that brought several awards from folklore festivals this past spring, the conductor presented new songs to the audience, which we will hear often on stage next season. This was the last performance of the choir for the 2024-2025 season, only a few more rehearsals are to come and then the summer vacation is ahead for all of us. We wish a cheerful summer, full of joy and happiness to everyone. In September we are back again to sing our favorite Bulgarian folk songs – pictures.
🥈 At the XXII Folk Festival A Song from Shopsko, held on June 8, 2025 in the village of Lokorsko near Sofia, in the Small Choir Ensembles category the Female Folk Choir Sofia presented an entirely a cappella program with songs from the Shopsko region, arranged especially for our choir. Competing with renowned smaller groups in the same category, all of which were singing with accompaniment, we are proud to anounce we were awarded the 🥈 Second Prize – pictures.
📺 Recently, the Female Folk Choir Sofia was visited in its rehearsal hall by the journalist from Radio Sofia of the Bulgarian National Radio Maria Boyadzhieva. To this young lady, we sang a bit and gave a short interview, broadcasted on May 22, 2025. The singer and founder of the Choir Sofia Maria Stoeva spoke about the creation of the choir and its history in the last 16 years, and our conductor Ivaylo Hristov spoke about the new repertoire and stage performances, as well as the new artistique challenges the ensemble is facing recently. And since we set aside a little of our rehearsal time for the interview, of course we sang two of our songs, one – Vredna Duda, a humorous song from the village of Dolni Koriten, Kyustendil region, arranged by our maestro – is a completely new addition to our repertoire, while Zadyavka is an arrangement by Georgi Genov of a song from Godech, which he donated to our choir when it was created. Listen to the interview in Bulgarian via the button above.
🥇 On May 10, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia took part in the Third National Folk Song Competition Spring Rainbow held in the village of Kurtovo Konare, Plovdiv Region. The jury for the competition, comprising some of the best performing folk singers of our time – Svetla Karadjova from Slavey Qurtet and Darina Slavova from the Trakia Folklore Ensemble, awarded us for the three songs we performed there 🥇 First Prize, and for high creative achievements in the preservation of our traditional folklore art, our conductor Ivaylo Hristov also received a diploma. Thank you for the encouraging words, we are happy about the well-deserved recognition and are looking forward to the opportunities for joint work – pictures and video.
📺 On April 18, 2025, the Sofia Choir was invited to the Bulgaria Morning show on Bulgaria on Air TV. In the short conversation, the singer and founder of the choir, Maria Stoeva, tolked about the creation of the choir 16 years ago, as well as about the unique old hand-woven and embroidered costumes, while the conductor talked about the new repertoire being prepared, as well as about the choir's latest tour in the Belgian capital, Brussels. In addition, we sang two songs in the acoustically beautiful and cozy TV studio – pictures and video.
🔔 On April 9, 2025, the Female Folk Choir Sofia visited the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, where, in addition to participating in a seminar and several important meetings, the choir performed a short concert on the steps of the main entrance, named after Altiero Spinelli. The concert was attended by many MEPs and staff of the Parliament, as well as other visitors and our admirers, and the event was covered by BTA with a short report – pictures and video.
🥈 On April 1, 2025, on the occasion of the Day of Humor and Joke, the Female Folk Choir Sofia participated in the XXI Festival of Humor and Joke Who Laughs, Lives Long in the village of Baylovo, and was awarded 🥈 Silver medal.
✅ On March 1, 2025, on the occasion of the Amateur Day, in the hall of the Badnina 1982 community center, the Female Folk Choir Sofia performed a short concert program, accompanied by a lovely celebration, in the presence of the members of the board of trustees and our dear guests – pictures.
