Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares

Submitted by nonesuch on
Sort Name
Mystere des Voix Bulgares
Biography (Excerpt)

Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares has been known by many names since its inception in 1952. Founded by Philip Koutev as the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir, the group began as a way to showcase the folk music of Bulgaria as well as commission new pieces by top Bulgarian composers. Its second of three Nonesuch recordings won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Recording.

Weight
10
Active Artist
No

Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares (Mystery of Bulgarian Voices) has been known by many names since its inception in 1952. Founded by Philip Koutev as the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir, the group began as a way to showcase the folk music of Bulgaria as well as commission new pieces by top Bulgarian composers. The group received much wider recognition with the Nonesuch release of two anthologies of the group in the late 1980s, with some tracks dating back to the group's earliest years.

The group's second Nonesuch release, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Vol. II, earned a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording and led to an extensive world tour, taking the singers across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. In 1994, Nonesuch released a third recording, Ritual, followed a year later by a box set with all three albums.

Latest Release

  • September 23, 1994

    The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir’s first studio recording since its two anthologies launched a worldwide phenomenon in the late 1980s, Ritual draws principally on Christmas carols and tunes meant for St. Lazar’s Day, a health and fertility holiday occurring the Saturday before Palm Sunday.

News

  • July 24, 2017

    NPR Music has published a list titled Turning the Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women, and among them are Emmylou Harris's Wrecking Ball, Laurie Anderson's Big Science, k.d. lang's Ingénue, and the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir's Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. "This list, of the greatest albums made by women between 1964 and the present, is an intervention, a remedy, a correction of the historical record and hopefully the start of a new conversation," says NPR.

  • January 6, 2014

    Marcel Cellier, the Swiss music producer, radio broadcaster, ethnomusicologist, and musician, has died at the age of 88. Cellier, who recorded the famed series of albums of the Bulgarian State Television female vocal choir, Mystère des Voix Bulgares, first released in the US on Nonesuch Records in the late 1980s, died at a hospital in the Swiss Riviera on Friday, December 13, 2013. The album's release sparked a global interest in the captivating voices of the choir and was followed by a second volume, which earned a Grammy Award and led to an extensive world tour, a third recording, and a box set.

Tour

Photos

Videos

About Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares

  • Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares (Mystery of Bulgarian Voices) has been known by many names since its inception in 1952. Founded by Philip Koutev as the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir, the group began as a way to showcase the folk music of Bulgaria as well as commission new pieces by top Bulgarian composers. The group received much wider recognition with the Nonesuch release of two anthologies of the group in the late 1980s, with some tracks dating back to the group's earliest years.

    The group's second Nonesuch release, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Vol. II, earned a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording and led to an extensive world tour, taking the singers across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. In 1994, Nonesuch released a third recording, Ritual, followed a year later by a box set with all three albums.

Performs On