Due to popular demand, we are delighted to now offer an online streaming option for London Bulgarian Choir’s sold out 8pm performance in Hall One. Please note that the recording will not be available to watch as a video on demand after the live broadcast. 

For information on how to use KPlayer, please refer to our guide.

The clashing otherworldly harmonies of Bulgarian singing are one of the musical glories of Europe, most famously performed by Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. Yet thanks to the irrepressible Dessislava Stefanova, who arrived here twenty years ago, London has its own multi-national Bulgarian choir.

The rich harmonies are like music tectonic plates shifting and grinding into each other, while there’s a great sense of fun in their choice of songs and presentation. They have triumphantly toured Bulgaria and recently released their third album, Songs of Forbidden Love. Man falls for cousin, girl meets dragon, granny imagines grandad in a sexy coat. Haven’t we all been there?

From its early days as a handful of singers, the London Bulgarian Choir has grown into an extended ensemble bringing its repertoire of traditional Bulgarian songs to concert halls, churches, nightclubs, galleries, festivals, embassies, village squares and even a barge on the River Thames. This incredible choir was founded in 2000 by Dessislava Stefanova (Dessi), a former singer with the legendary Philip Koutev Bulgarian National Folk Ensemble in Sofia, and thanks to her patience and dedication this group of largely non-Bulgarian singers has become a performing tour de force, winning hearts and minds from the Welsh valleys to Bulgaria’s mountain villages. Most recently the choir starred in BBC Radio 4 documentary, A Choral History of Britain, garnered rave reviews for a cameo performance in Shakespeare’s Pericles at the National Theatre in 2018, and soundtracked 2019’s hit podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen.