Daylight Music - London Bulgarian Choir + Heidi Elva

FREE ENTRY midday - 2pm

Daylight music is a dazzling idea presented by the Union Chapel to open up their amazing gothic venue to a shiny new daytime crowd and provide a rather exciting platform for artists.


London Bulgarian Choir

For more than 30 years, since the release of the first Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares CD, Bulgarian choral music has been weaving its spine-tingling magic among Western audiences. These traditional songs, many dating back hundreds of years, tell powerfully evocative tales of love and loss, fighting and celebration, and the dissonant harmonies and exuberant trills rarely leave audiences unmoved. With its repertoire of traditional songs, the London Bulgarian Choir – founded in 2000 by Dessislava Stefanova (Dessi), a former singer with the legendary Philip Koutev National Ensemble in Sofia – has become a performing tour de force, bringing its unforgettable sound to concert halls, churches, galleries, festivals, village squares and even a barge on the River Thames. This vibrant group of singers embraces all ages and nationalities and brings to this choral tradition a warmth and richness all its own.

The Choir’s notable achievements include winning the first ever BBC Radio 3 Open Choir of the Year in 2006, being featured as one of Joan Armatrading’s Favourite Choirs on BBC Radio 4, performing at Westminster Abbey in 2010, and releasing an album, Alyana Galyana. There have been collaborations with rock, jazz and classical musicians, most prominently British Sea Power at Glastonbury, and Doves at the 2009 BBC Electric Proms, and members of the Choir sang on the award-winning soundtrack of the BBC’s Elizabeth, The Virgin Queen. In 2010, a BBC Choral Ambition grant enabled the Choir to commission exclusive new pieces from celebrated Bulgarian composer, Kiril Todorov, which were premiered on the Choir’s tour of Bulgaria last August. The Choir is currently working on a new CD, incorporating the new material.

http://www.londonbulgarianchoir.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPvxjc3fzV4&playnext=1&list=PL6EE5674FC323CABE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh1pVW—SSg

Heidi Elva

Heidi Elva grew up in a small town in New Zealand. A town next to a lake with an ancient Maori canoe buried at the bottom and under tall mountain ranges. Her Father was a postman and a preacher, her Mother, a housewife.

Using a loop pedal in one pocket, a delay pedal in the other, she weaves harp lines and minimal beats, adding layers taken from her iphone to conjure up haunting soundscapes. Then there’s Heidi’s voice. A friend once said it was like a narcotic. She thought that was interesting. Heidi’s songs are musings of abandoned places, the moon and the stars, sailing ships, climbing mountains and the future. Her music is like the moment the sun gives way to the night.

www.heidielva.com
www.myspace.com/heidielva