Dessislava Stefanova

Dessislava Stefanova began western classical training at six in Stara Zagora and also sang with the children's folk ensemble Zagorche. She read linguistics at Sofia University, was recruited there into the Filip Kutev National Folk Ensemble and sang with it, then moved to Britain in 2000 and took a master's in music at SOAS. The London Bulgarian Choir, founded in her first year in the city, won the open category of BBC Radio 3's Choir of the Year in 2006, has released recordings and toured Bulgaria. She has led the Swiss Bulgarian Choir since 2011 and teaches the open-throated Bulgarian village style in workshops across Britain and Europe. Her own voice is on the soundtracks of Troy, The Brothers Grimm, The Virgin Queen and Borat, and she contributed with the choir to Halo 4. She has performed with Doves, British Sea Power and Balkan Beat Box. She received the Bulgarian Woman of the Year award for 2017 in 2018. The master's degree at SOAS was completed in 2008, and the Swiss Bulgarian Choir grew out of a workshop she gave in Switzerland in April 2011.