Dandûrzhaven Ansambandûl za narodni pesni i tantsi (Kutev)

Stana sedi v gradina (Stana is sitting in the garden)
Velina bulya dumashe (Velina was talking to her sister-in-law)
Irino le (Eh, Irina)
Hranila mama, gledala (Mother had fed and nursed)
Chiyo momiche (Whose girl)
Lale li si, zyumbyul li si (Are you a tulip or a hyacinth)
Chu se, prochu se hubava Vida (Beautiful Vida has become famous)

Momne le, mûri hubava (Eh you, beautiful maiden)
Ruske le (Eh, Ruska)
Protekla e voda (Water had flown)
Esenchitse, yabûlchitse (Eh you, apple-like autumn)
Shopski proletni tantsi (Spring dance of the Shope district)

The State Ensemble for Folksongs and Dances was founded on May 1, 1951. It did not grow up from an amateur ensemble, but was set up directly as a professional company, with the respective requirements inherent to such a professional group. The initial aim of the ensemble was to discover, recast artistically, to develop and to produce scenically the most vivid patterns of Bulgarian musical and dancing folklore. The members of the ensemble were selected through competitions, which were held all over the land, irrespective of any preliminary musical or dancing education or training. All further qualifications they were to acquire in the course of the work of the group, which became a "sui generis" school of music and dancing. The only requirements which the future performers were to have, besides the necessary artistic talent, was to possess a varied repertoire of songs and dances, inherent to the folklore region from which they came.

The ensemble's three main performing groups are: a female choir, based on an original and undisguised popular manner of singing; a folk-style instrumental orchestra (reed-pipes, bagpipes, rebecks, lutes, drums, etc.), and a mixed dancing group with a popular style countenance.

Founder of the ensemble and its Chief Art Leader was and continues to be Filip Kutev – People's Artist of Bulgaria. From the very beginning of the ensemble's existence, the following artists have closely collaborated with Filip Kutev, both in its direction and artistic management: the People's Artist Margarita Kikova – choreographer; Maria Kuteva -- philologist-folklorist and repertory director, with Pavlina Bedrova and Mihail Yordanov, conductors of the ensemble. In the course of time other talented artists and musicians also worked alongside with Filip Kutev.

During its 28-years-long existence numerous integral programs for the separate groups of the company, or such for the ensemble as a whole, were elaborated including large-scale and multi-part musical and dance pieces, with very sophisticated chamber forms. The authors of these programmes and separate pieces have been, for the most part, the artistic managers of the ensemble. While comparatively simple solutions predominated during the initial period of the ensemble's existence, these programs became more and more intricate with the ripening of the latter's cast and integral structure. The basic principle for the creative elaboration of these programs remained the careful study and the utilization of the most appropriate age-old traditional and unwritten Bulgarian folklore forms and separate schools regarding the origin, genre and style peculiarities of the separate pieces.

Until 1979 the State Ensemble for Folksongs and Dances has given over 2800 concerts in front of Bulgarian and foreign audiences, in a very great variety of compositions and casts, including numerous educational musical concerts, accompanied by lectures and on-the-spot illustrations, in accordance with the training and the age groups of the different audiences in front of which these concerts were performed – starting with children from the first grade in primary schools and all the way up the scale to university students or such in various higher institutions of education.

The State Ensemble for Folksongs and Dances has been on concert tours in over 30 countries of Europe, Asia, America and Africa.

Until the present moment the State Ensemble for Folksongs and Dances has registered several gramophone records for Balkanton, as well as for several other gramophone recording companies abroad. The present album consists, in the main, of pieces from the ensemble's most recent programs. – Maria Kuteva