Kostadin Genchev


composer, performer

Костадин Генчев

14.12.1969Gabrovo – Bulgaria

Kostadin Genchev was born in 1969 in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. At the age of 10 he started playing the kaval and in 1988 graduated Fillip Koutev secondary music school in Kotel, Bulgaria. In 2016 he obtained his Master’s degree from the Musical Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria, majoring in Composing in the class of Prof. Krassimir Taskov.

His career in different music gtoups started in 1990 with the Ensemble for Folklore Singing and Dancing, Sliven, Bulgaria. For a short while he worked at the Filip Koutev Folklore Ensemble, and from 1993 he has been a soloist, orchestra member, composer and arranger with the Folk Orchestra at the Bulgarian National Radio. Since then Kostadin Genchev has authored over 800 arrangements of folklore songs and over 100 instrumental pieces specifically for this orchestra. He has also worked in the instrumental group at the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices choir, travelling with them and taking part in hundreds of concerts around Europe, Asia and Latin America, from Brazil to Hong Kong.

He is the founder of the ethno music groups Bulgara and Wild River.

Kostadin Genchev has also been writing music for the Northern Ensemble for Folklore Singing and Dancing, Pleven, the Thracian Ensemble for Folklore Singing and Dancing, Yambol, Ethnorhythm Folklore Dancing Group, Plovdiv.
Kostadin Genchev is the composer of the music piece ”The Boyars of Dance” for ”The Magic of Dance” show performed by Chinari Ensemble in 2013. In the same year he also wrote the folklore part of the music for the ”Midsummer Mystery” show by Neshka Robeva National Art.

Kostadin Genchev is the winner of the 2005 Askeer award for theatre music with Bulgara group and in 2016 was awarded second prize from the National Competition for Writing a Symphonic Piece in a Complex 7/8 Rhythm.

Kostadin Genchev is frequently invited as a guest player at recordings of a number of pop singers and ethno projects.

Especially significant and successful has been his participation as a kaval player, composer and arranger in the ”Belonoga” ethno project (together with his wife Gergana Dimitrova – singer with the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices and Eva Quartet) and their first album in 2013 ”Through the Eyes of the Sun”.

Creativity

For solo kaval and orchestra: 

“Dobrevska Rosenitsa from Straldzha”;
“Paidushko Horo”;
“Vulkanina song and rhinchenitsa”;
“Kurucheniya musicians”;
“Maccali Rosenitsa”;
“Thracian buenake”;
“Mominsko horo”;
“Three songs from Strandja” and others.

Dance works: 

“Living Roots” – ensemble “Ethnorthum”;
“The Balls of Dance” – ensemble “Chinari”;
“Legend of the Mystic Gold Mask” – ensemble “Chinari”;
“Renaissance Stories” – ensemble “Chinari”;
“Women’s Shoppe Dance” – Northwestern Ensemble Pleven;
“The Mystery of Enyovden” (folklore part) – Ensemble “National Art” by Neshka Robeva.

Vocals: 

“Senses” – Eva quartet;
“Kalino Rado” – Eva Quartet;
“Pomaks” – Eva Quartet;
“Triptych” – for mixed choir;
“Belasitsa” – for soprano and piano;
“Pirin Morning” – for tenor and piano;
“Sister of Pirin” – for baritone and piano;
over 800 arrangements of folk songs.

Works – Classical Music: 

“Allegro vigoroso” – for a string quartet;
“Scherzo” – for piano;
“Sonatina” – for orchestra;
“Sonata” – for orchestra;
“Rondo” – for orchestra;
“Symphonic Suite” Amateur Games”- for orchestra;
“Ethno-Symphonic Tales” – Performance.

Ethno music:
BULGARA Group: 

“The Wild”;
“Nestinarsko”;
“Balkan Flamenco”;
“Sweet Tug”;
“Unes”;
“Gara-Bulgara”;
“Lapad”;
“Merry Jore” and others.

SIVECO Group: 

“Burgo Ruchenitsa”;
“Mad Work”;
“Merry Nine”;
“Tulle” and others.


“Caravan”;
“Irisch Mamaliga”;
“Curve Rain”;
“Eastern Ballad”;
“Legs near Ogosta”;
“Pirinski megdan”;
“Gurglejski Kushchemis”;
“St. George’s Three Times”
“Concert Hall for Three Kavala”;
“Mominsko horo”;
“Strandzha melodies”;
“Strandzha Mountain”;
Three-Kava Suite;
“Thracian Wedding Rosenitsa”;
“Music picture” Strandzha “;
“Song of the Self-Direction” and others.

Music for the film “Beyond the Line” of BNT, director Iliya Dobrev.