• Bury Me Standing Music Series – featured vocalist, Lizard’s Lounge, Boston, October 2010

• Berklee International Folk Festival – organized and lead a vocal group to perform Bulgarian folk songs Spring 2010

• Bulgarian Cultural Celebration – featured vocalist, Springstep, Medford, MA, Spring 2010

• Black Sea Salsa Band – vocalist, performed at Ryles Jazz Club, Summer/Fall 2010

• Dan Fox Summer Jazz Ensemble – vocalist and pianist, performed for Sommerville Community Access TV Summer 2010

• Clark University Big Band and Jazz Combo – vocalist and pianist – performed at many college events and recitals 2005-2009

• Clark International Achords – co-founded, lead, and arranged for a world music vocal group, 2008-2009

• Global Music Foundation Summer Jazz Workshop, Certaldo, Italy – participating vocalist, Summer2008

• Kallin Johnson Jazz Trio – vocalist, performed at various venues in Worcester, MA
  2007-2009

Growing up in my native Bulgaria, I was exposed to various musical influences due to the eclectic taste of my parents. Being the vocalist of a local jazz and pop band revealed to me the magic of stage performance, and it became my greatest passion. The teen years I spent singing both arias and jazz standards, being a soloist in choirs and performing with my jazz band at a festival in Langnau, Switzerland.
I searched for new musical and cultural horizons and found myself doing a B.A. at Clark University in Worcester, MA. Academically I focused on Political Science, but always did music on the side, becoming the vocalist of the college two jazz ensembles, and studying jazz voice, piano, and improvisation with Kallin Johnson, James Allard, and Paul Buono. I started exploring some fascinating musical-cultural traditions, such Indian, Native American, Arabic, and my native Bulgarian. A school-sponsored research project to study the Native American Flute helped me understand how interwoven music and culture are, on the one hand, and how music can have a universal appeal no matter what culture one belongs to, on the other. At Berklee I have continued to expand the array of musical styles, by performing with ensembles for South African, Middle Eastern, jazz, and rock music. After putting together a very well-received performance of Bulgarian songs at the International Folk Festival, my interests have been leaning heavily towards rediscovering the musical wealth of Bulgaria and the region – fast dances, odd meters, uncommon instruments. In future I hope to create original works based on traditional tunes but in contemporary jazz/fusion context.