Veneta Vicheva

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Choir conductor Veneta Vicheva

Professor Veneta Vicheva belongs to the generation of Bulgarian conductors who have made Bulgarian choir art famous to the world. She is proudly marking the 50th year of her artistic career. Veneta Vicheva studied in the first choir conducting class of the State Academy of Music in Sofia. After graduating from the Academy in 1955 she started work in the town of Dupnitsa, Southwestern Bulgaria, where in the next 5 years she led the local music school, choir and operetta theater. There she prepared the productions of “The Czardas Queen” and the “Pretty Helena”, which gave a strong impetus on her artistic life onwards. In the early 60s Veneta Vicheva returned to her native city of Shumen in Northeastern Bulgaria and conducted the “Rodni Zvutsi” (“Native Sounds” in English) choir. “I have been leading the choir since 1961. I sang there while at school. Today the formation is 110 years old and I have conducted it in the last 45 of them. The people there welcomed me heartily and that helped me raise the quality of the choir. At the beginning the choir numbered 140 singers – 70 men and 70 ladies. In the city of Shumen every third or fourth family has someone who has sang in the choir. Together we won many of the highest national distinctions. Besides, the male section of the choir won the Gold Medal at the contest in Debrezen, Hungary. Many other awards followed. Recently, we have been to Camerino, Italy where we took the Silver award. With a lot of love and artistic enthusiasm Veneta Vicheva created the Shumen-based children’s choir named “Bodra Pessen” (Cheerful Song, in English). She introduced many talented children to the world of singing and created an elite formation. The repertoire of the choir consists of Bulgarian and foreign children’s songs, cantatas and oratorical works. Many Bulgarian composers wrote music especially for the choir. The kid’s formation has received through the years quite a number of international awards. In 2004 the European Choir Federation with the EU pronounced the children’s choir “Ambassador of European Culture”. Asked whether it is easy to work with children’, Mrs. Vicheva explains: “No, it is not. I set up the choir in 1963. And since then I have come to realize that you can achieve anything with children if you only know how to ask for it. That is why the four 1st prizes we took are no surprise. They are from Debretsen-Hungary, Arezzo-Italy, Varna on the Black Sea and Neerpelt-Belgium. They also made very impressive performances at the youth festivals in Berlin and Sofia. We have been guest performing with the children’s and the adult’s choirs in Greece several times now along a joint artistic project with Greek composer Professor Vassilis Makridis,” Veneta Vicheva explains. In Shumen Veneta Vicheva is a very popular personality and the choirs are not the only reason. She is also the initiator of the “Dobri Voinikov” National Students’ Choir Days and Professor at Shumen University, which has awarded her the title of Doctor Honoris Causa. She is known as a conductor in many countries of Europe and Japan. But the greatest distinction for her is the love of generations of choir singers she has introduced to the world of music.

BOOK: "Tell me song!" (biography), Shumen,2007.