Varna Children Opera Choir

Attached to the opera company of Bulgaria's largest Black Sea city, this choir trains young singers for the stage: children's parts in the standard repertory, chorus work, and from time to time programmes of its own. The Varna opera was registered in 1921 and opened to the public the following August; since 1997 it has formed a single state institute together with the city's philharmonic. The choir's members therefore grow up inside an organisation that runs an orchestra and an opera house at once, and they hear both.