Bulgaria Hall was filled almost to overflowing as nearly 1500 people came (click photo to enlarge)

The idea for the concert was conceived last summer when Judy said that we needed to prepare a concert with the choirs of the Evangelical churches and an orchestra of Christian musicians. This could be recorded to fill the great need of Bulgarian Christians to have such music available to them.

As we began to develop the idea, Paul selected a number of potential songs/arrangements and shared them with Yuliana Isaeva, Blagovest Nikolov, and Stefan Vrachev, music leaders at II Pentecostal, I Congregational and “The Gospel” churches respectively. They were really enthused about the idea of assembling the massed choir and of reviving our Evangelical Alliance chamber choir. Paul talked to pastors and music directors to encourage as many churches as possible to participate.

Paul prepared the scores with the Bulgarian texts of all but two of the arrangements (which Blagovest had already done), and ordered the orchestral scores. For each of the arrangements to be performed by the large choir, we recorded each part separately along with the accompaniment: Judy sang both the soprano and alto parts, and Paul recorded the tenor and bass. These were copied and distributed to choir members so that they could learn their parts more easily.

The individual choirs began their rehearsals on the music in January, and mass choir rehearsals began in late March. In the meantime, the leadership group for the concert began contacting instrumentalists who attend various evangelical churches. We were amazed at the number of believers who play in various orchestras or are students at the Sofia Conservatory and the music high school. Almost all of them were anxious to participate, and eventually almost all of the orchestra was comprised of believers from about ten different churches.

We decided on Bulgaria Hall, since it is a prestigious and sizeable hall with excellent acoustics and reasonable fees. One of our biggest challenges was simply arranging the choir and orchestra on the stage! Most of the chamber choir members were standing through the entire 90-minute performance.

Most people had no idea what to expect of the concert, but as it unfolded, they realized that this was a historic moment for evangelicals in Bulgaria. Many people wept when they realized that only a few short years ago, such a program would have been totally unthinkable in Communist Bulgaria. Many people who are not from evangelical backgrounds attended the concert at the invitation of friends and were also moved by the music and the message that it proclaimed. One lady told Judy, “I am so glad I came. People need to hear music like this to be uplifted in their soul!”

The concert was recorded and Paul spent many hours afterwards with the sound engineers mastering the recording. We will make it available to people through the churches so that they can have music that will honor the Lord, uplift the hearts of believers, and bring a message of hope and salvation to those who do not yet know Him.

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