Having enchanted a capacity audience at Grace Cathedral during the 2006 SFJAZZ Spring Season, the Grammy-winning choir “Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares” returns for an encore “Sacred Space” performance to commemorate this Silver Anniversary year.

Founded over half a century ago to preserve and promote Bulgarian folk music, the all-female choir first achieved worldwide popularity in the 1980s—beginning when the British independent label 4AD (onetime home to the Cocteau Twins, Pixies, and Dead Can Dance) re-released a Le Mystère compilation album self-issued a decade prior by Swiss ethnomusicologist Marcel Cellier (who coined the group’s French-language name, which translates to “The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices”). In the late ’80s, U.S. releases on the tastemaker Nonesuch label— the second of which earned a Grammy Award—exposed the choir’s musical magic to an even broader audience. Members of Le Mystère have since recorded with the likes of British art-rock singer-songwriter Kate Bush and classical crossover violinist Vanessa-Mae.

By employing traditional Bulgarian harmonies—simultaneously dissonant and sublimely beautiful—vocal punctuations, and irregular rhythms, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares performances fall under the “sound of surprise” definition that Whitney Balliett once used to describe jazz. As The New York Times put it: “The choir of two dozen women sounds both angelic and, to American ears, gorgeously alien.” the group worldwide accolades including a BBC World Music Award in 2004.

Close program notes

• Hristiva Dorka Gueorguieva, Conductor
• Barova Kalinka Martinova, Manager
• Vocals: Bojkova Elena Dimitrova, Kostadinova Gergana Dimitrova, Eftimova Violeta Petrova, Ivanova Olga Borissova, Nakova Violeta Marinova, Mircheva Rumyana Petrova, Vachkova Kremena Stancheva, Damyanova Dafinka Danailova, Gadjeva Daniela Kostadinova, Koteterova Binka Ivanova, Kovacheva Sofiya Ilieva, Leshkova Mariya Dimitrova, Nankova Radka Parvanova, Nedialkova Roussana Dimitrova, Hristova Evelina Spasova, Vladimirova Silviya Stoyanova, Asparuhova Ruslana Evlogieva, Hristova Vasilka Damyanova, Boiadjieva Marina Ignatova, Krastanova Elichka Dincheva, Miloucheva Evguenia Stoyanova, Stoitchkova Daniela Mileva, Velyovska-Bogeva Tsvetelina


• Soloists Spassov Daniel Svetoslavov, Ivanov Milen Emilov

• Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares Website (Eye For Talent)