Interview with Mirela STOYANOVA
The popular folklore performer Volodya Stoyanov-The Voivodate will be one of the guest performers at the concert that his colleague Iliya Lukov organizes on October 14 in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture. In “Ilia Lukov and Friends“ other favorite folk singers such as Rumyana Popova, Vanya Valkova, Nikolay Slaveev, Liliya Semkova, Kinche Valcheva, Valeria Momchilova will sing. Ensemble “Mezdra“, Club “Horo“ from Smolyan, Bulgarians living abroad will also participate.
Volodya Stoyanov began his career as a vocalist of the rock band “Granichar” in 1979, with which they won first place in the national music festival under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior. In the 90s, he decided to focus on Bulgarian folklore and popularize it in a different and contemporary way by creating a new trend in folklore, called “inti-folk” - from intelligent folk, which also includes rock elements. In 1993, Volodya decided to write music based on the emblematic poem by P. K. Yavorov “Measure according to measure” and the song became a big hit, which he performs to this day. Volodya Stoyanov is the winner of many awards, including the award for “Artist of the Year” in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and has released more than 20 albums with his own songs.
- Volodya, you will participate in the concert “Ilya Lukov and Friends“ on October 14 in Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture. This grandiose event, organized by your colleague, brings together many famous folk performers and folklore ensembles. What is the idea of this concert?
- Iliya Lukov's idea for this concert is very good and it brings us together with hope. To solve quite painful social problems, roadlessness, stagnation in the modern era. It seems that we have no direction in which to take confidently and together. Iliya decided to do this concert to stir things up, to see us together. And each of us will participate with 1-2 songs in the concert.
We want to ring the bell of awakening right on the great Christian holiday of Great St. Petka. We want it to echo in Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia - everywhere where Bulgarians live. People hope for better times, for better relations among ourselves, because they are missing now. There are deliberately erected barriers that hinder, and which throw the younger generations into a state of bewilderment. The problem is between ourselves, we have let this pathlessness creep deep into our social life.
- Aren't you too extreme, why do you think so?
- I'm not, this is the truth and we all see it. It scares! Instead of solving the problems on the move during these 35 years of democracy, they were accumulating and now we - the famous singers, want to set an example of solving them, in the best way to give hope to everyone. And in the future, the new generation of singers should keep this direction in the name of goodness, of Christ's teachings, song and word.
The Bulgarian language is incredibly rich and these days I saw some writings, how in the Balkans they find a place with some stone slab with carved Glagolitic script. And they are happy - let's say five smart heads gather and say: “The whole thing started with us”. How many slabs we have here in Bulgaria, around Pliska - there are so many of them in our old capitals - in Tarnovo, in Serdika, in Sofia, throughout the Bulgarian land, which has built and upgraded churches and schools.
At the moment, in order to prevent a total replacement of our history with some fictional one, we must come together and show unity of creativity against this terrible manipulation. Which has no face, but has the appetite to swallow everything that our ancestors and forefathers built under every stone of a Bulgarian church or as they say today in the Balkans - under every stone lies a Bulgarian name. This is the work of our ancestors, who have Bulgarian roots. But, oh my - this thing must be forgotten, some people shout at us!
- And how will you cope, how will we all cope?
- We must not be passive observers of this replacement, it must be stopped, because we have enough history and enough examples. The Vazov family alone has given so much! It has roots in Macedonia. Not to mention Dimitar Talev - he is a classic, he wrote his tetralogy in such a way that when you read it you cry. With such tenderness he shows the real, Bulgarian pictures of that time - from the beginning of the Revival, during the Revival and at its apogee, reaching the Ilinden-Preobrazhensko Uprising in 1903.
- You and Iliya Lukov always talk about the Bulgarian spirit and Bulgarianness. Is folklore that grain that brings us all together with Bulgarian self-awareness wherever we are in the world? Is that what you want to show in our songs and dances?
- The Bulgarian spirit has existed since ancient times and the cipher of Paisius is encoded in it. Paisius of Hilendar, when he wrote in 1762 "Slavonic-Bulgarian History", preserved this work of his from subsequent manipulations, which he, and every ruler, has seen. He has seen them in our neighbors, in political ill-wishers.
In Macedonia, Moldova, the Western Outskirts - everywhere we have the same songs, sung by our grandparents. For example - "Razvivay goro, zelena", which is from 1869 - just a year before the confirmation of the Bulgarian Exarchate by the Sublime Porte in Constantinople. And let's go through the other years of events during the time of Ferdinand. "Bilyana platno beleshe" was a hit like an old classic Bulgarian song. This song is sung all over Bulgaria. They have described Beli Grad.
However, look at the manipulation: winemakers from Beli Grad – in fact, this is a city in Albania, with which our previous kings designated the western borders of the Bulgarian Empire, where Bulgarians lived. It is an honor to our brothers and sisters in Albania that they not only study it, but also speak it as a fact. They say: “Bulgarians really have roots here. They officially recognize a Bulgarian minority there, entire settlements, but without violating the universal law of truth.
God forbid that this law be violated where it is stamped and sealed with the sacred seal of the blood of our ancestors. Then you yourself will not gain anything eternal and authoritative. You can win a temporary battle and a mistake, but on your plate, where you found one with Glagolitic script, we will show you 100. On your songs that you have claims, on your 10 we will get 1000, etc.
- Where do you draw inspiration and strength for your songs and for your love for Bulgaria?
- From the hymns of Kosta Tsarnushanov from the time of the National Revival, of the Miladinovi Brothers from Struga, of Ivan Vazov and of many patriots born in Macedonia, and with roots, with customs inscribed inside - they are in my library. For example: “Beautiful Yana has no family“. That's what they say about the extraordinary beauty of a girl. Even Yana's cousin himself bows down to the beauty of the Bulgarian woman, but the man, the bachelor, says: “Yano, you are so beautiful that Yana has no other beautiful family.“
There are many subtle moments of falling in love, of flirting. In modern times, I made the song “Ohridska zadyavka“ by interpreting a love affair of Dimche – the diminutive name of the great Bulgarian writer Dimitar Talev – as if during the Renaissance it happened with an imaginary beautiful Yana by Lake Ohrid. He says: “Lift up Yana, let's see your eyes, on Easter he will take you, he will carry you to St. Naum above the monastery“.
I have been to this monastery four times and to a beautiful place above Lake Ohrid - it is one of my favorite places, and I have always admired the courage of our ancestors to create the Ohrid School under the guidance of Tsar Boris. St. Clement of Ohrid together with Naum worked and opened the school – then at that time – the 9th century, it was a university and had over 3000 graduates to call them. Creating the Cyrillic alphabet, they did not put their own name – he observes the universal law not to put his name under something where its roots are still from the brothers Cyril and Methodius - Leo on his father's side, and pious Maria from Thessaloniki on his mother's side.
These things must be known, because with a person who does not understand and has not read history, he has nothing to show except naked stubbornness. In the Balkans, this is what hinders us the most – naked stubbornness. When you become stubborn... You say to yourself - everything is ours. Well, show it, okay! Together with the large amphitheater from Roman times in Ohrid is our church "St. Sophia" on the shores of Lake Ohrid. The cobblestones there were laid by our ancestors.
-You know that the truth is hard to digest, sometimes it is frightening, sometimes it is disadvantageous...
- It is better to live with the truth, because it will not only make us free, but it will also make us worthy before future generations. To whom we can safely tell this truth. And not with some slogans for entire generations to grow up, which we are witnesses to. They just wave their hands and say “Everything is a lie for Bulgarians“. Let's eliminate this hatred!
And that's why I support the idea of Iliya Lukov, who, back in the day as a child, used to climb into my old Muscovite and take his first singing lessons, so to speak. And when he recently came to my Spiritual Center in Petrich, I told him: “We will do it!“ Because things have already crossed all limits and we must save the Bulgarian identity as a people from such encroachments that Grandpa Vazov would not forgive us. He would roar every day.
Talev would jump at these insanities with both hands to defend Bulgarian roots with both hands. Albanians remember, they do not forget. Bulgaria has always been victorious in military actions, but losing in political agreements. We lose every such battle there.
- What's going on with your Spiritual Center that you built, Voivode, are people gathering yet?
- Every year on May 6, Petrich has its own city holiday - St. George the Victorious. And my Spiritual Center is a fence with a fence with the church that bears that name. I am on the upper side of the shining Belasitsa Mountain - people come here, light a candle in the church and then go up to my Spiritual Center, if they have heard about it or seen me.
It hasn't opened yet, but I have already welcomed about 100 people in a week - they take selfies, take pictures with the great panorama that opens up. And with the monument to Vasil Levski, which was a gift to me from Prof. Ivan Gavrilov for Bulgarianness in the most southwestern point of Bulgaria. So that generations and those who come can see that the struggle of a revolutionary like Botev or Levski was not only around Panagyurishte, Klisura or towns like Sopot or Karlovo. The idea in Thrace, Moesia and Macedonia is always to have enlightenment, to have enlightenment.
That is why at that time Vazov called the Ministry of Culture – Ministry of Enlightenment. Because the letter Sh has an incredible sacred power from the Cyrillic alphabet – Sh and Z are the letters that hold life and the foundation of the walls steady. The letters themselves represent other things. Let this concert “Ilia Lukov and Friends“ gather an audience, many people. And I told him: “Ilia, I am not doing it for fame. And these singers who come on stage do not come for their personal fame, but for the cause “Bulgaria“. We are Christians and we will sing for our homeland.
- In recent days, there has been a lot of talk and comment on the topic of the future subject in school - optional - Religion and Virtues. What do you think - is this good or bad?
- Any teaching that is oriented towards Good is welcome. Because during these 35 years we have failed to teach children good, and therefore now we reap absurdities, actions of lumpen that take human lives. And they do it with ease, thinking that this is natural. There are rules.
And the education that His Holiness Patriarch Daniil offers, to whom I have special thanks, because he is very well-read, is something truly good and very useful, it is real. Finally, I am convinced that Bulgaria has found a spiritual shepherd who is active, and an active shepherd always irritates those who have prepared new manipulations in the future. And they constantly associate him with the Kremlin and what not.
But the Russian spiritual shepherd, who was here on a visit years ago, he admitted that St. Cyprian of Tarnovo is the main spreader of Orthodoxy in Kievan Rus and up in Russia. We should not be afraid, because history starts with us, we are a blessed people who have not encroached on anyone during all these centuries, have never had slaves and we do not need to invent history for our great good fortune. Because we have a reliable and always turned in the spiritual aspect.
His Holiness Daniel wants to remind with this subject that it was not in vain that from the churches and the first monastic schools, which were housed in those still small and dark damp church rooms, painted only with lime and chalk, with a box of sand they wrote A, B, C, D... Everything and nothing new under the sun started from there. He wants to give a chance to the word of Christ, because it is currently muffled, covered with very thick walls so that the truth about God, the Holy Spirit and the Son - the Holy Trinity, which are the foundation of Orthodoxy, is not heard. And it is at the center of all religions. Let us look into each other's eyes with love, not with hatred.
- Do you have new songs, what is coming up, Voivode?
- I have a new song. In recent days I wrote a very cheerful song for a company, it is the true philosophy of the Bulgarian, when he wants to have fun, and he knows how to do that. The song is called: “I drink, sing and enjoy life“. Hopefully we will be lucky enough to get things going in Bulgaria, because this stagnation and hesitation greatly hinders the psychology of the Bulgarian. I have been in the USA for years, and for a year in Canada. There, an interesting fact made a big impression on me: many of the people in Chicago and other large cities do not know who their president is. And they do not need to. I jumped up and asked “Why?“. - Well, that is none of our business, they told me.
And then I slapped myself on the forehead: From where and where they put us in the role of arbitrators in things that are predetermined. This is how they take away the beloved energy of the entire people. Where decisions are made, there must be worthy and verified people. And to pass a lie detector. At the entrance to the Parliament, to enter with a hand on their heart or to answer the question: “Are you entering for yourself or for Mother Bulgaria?“. Whoever is not for Mother Bulgaria, then he is not there.