"Altan Mara" - a folk masterpiece in the arrangement of Georgi Minchev

Many precious folklore pearls have been performed by the great Bulgarian folk singer Yanka Rupkina. One of the most beloved soloists of "The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices", adored by the audience and admired by world celebrities, she has always said that she believes in all her songs because they charge her with their beautiful lyrics and melodies.

Among the most moving examples in her repertoire is "Altan Mara", recorded with the kaval player Stoyan Velichkov. The story in the song is tragic: the beautiful "golden Mara" (alton meaning gold in Turksih) is waiting for her fiancé to come to ask her to be his bride. But instead of her beloved and the fiancés, evil people break into her home, chain her up and kidnap her. Rupkina interpreted the sad Strandzha melody so irresistibly that she provoked the producer of the "Balgarka" trio, Joe Boyd, to admit that he could listen to her endlessly when she performs “Atlan Mara”.

In 1989, “Altan Mara” triumphed once again in a new, completely different interpretation, included on the third record of the renowned series “The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices” by the legendary producer Marcel Cellier. The performance is by the choir of the Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances “Trakia” in Plovdiv, conducted by Stefan Mutafchiev, and the arrangement was created by the distinguished composer Georgi Lyubenov Minchev, who celebrated his 87^th birthday on January 29, 2026.

A prominent artist and public figure, the son of the great opera performer - the tenor Lyuben Minchev - is described as “a Bulgarian composer of significance to European music” (E. Docheva) and an author “with a broad range, whose creative horizons encompass a diversity of genres and skillfully interwoven stylistic devices, compositional techniques, and his own innovative discoveries” (A. Palieva). His education is impressive - his composition professor in Sofia was Marin Goleminov; and at the Moscow Conservatory - the legends Rodion Shchedrin and Aram Khachaturian. In 1972, Minchev won a UNESCO scholarship and specialized in the United States, France, and England. In Paris, he studied with the great composers Olivier Messiaen and Luciano Berio.

In 1959, he began working at the Bulgarian National Radio and remained on its staff for nearly four decades, and from 1989 he served as Chief Artistic Director of Music Production and Ensembles. For many years, he was also Secretary, Deputy Chair, and Chief Secretary of the Union of Bulgarian Composers.

His body of work spans almost all musical genres: impressive symphonic and chamber works, the oratorio “Old Bulgarian Chronicles,” the ballet “Fahrenheit 451” after Ray Bradbury, over 100 solo, choral, and children’s songs, around 350 folk arrangements, and film music. A large portion of his large-scale works were commissioned by authoritative international institutions, orchestras, and festivals and have been awarded at prestigious competitions.

Georgi Minchev has been invited to serve as a jury member at established composition contests. He has participated in three editions of the International Rostrum of Composers (IRC, one of the most prestigious global forums for contemporary classical music, organized by the International Music Council - IMC).

More than 20 major recording companies have released his works in Bulgaria, Russia, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United States.

One of his most impressive opuses - the Piano Concerto - was selected by the International Association of Music Experts in the United States in 1979, nominated for the Koussevitzky Prize, and ranked first at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris in 1981. Georgi Minchev is the recipient of numerous high Bulgarian and international honors, including the European award “Lorenzo the Magnificent” from the International Academy “Medici” in Florence in 1989.

The folklore gem “Altan Mara,” in the masterful polyphonic version by this talented creator - one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Bulgarian music with international authority and recognition - has become a true vocal jewel and an undisputed model of Bulgarian musical culture.

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Edited by Elena Karkalanova
English: R. Petkova