Men comprise the vast majority of musicians in Bulgaria. Even the advent of Socialist-inspired state-run folk music schools promoting equality among the sexes has not erased entirely the social stigma among women musicians as competitive in a man's world and somewhat less desirable as wives. This prejudice takes humorous overtones as Bulgarian men try to justify it: "She plays gaida (bagpipes). Do you know what else she would put in her mouth?" They ignore the reflection thus cast on male gaida players.

The two State-run folk music schools, Kotel and Shiroka Lûka, accepted singers and required them to learn an instrument.

Among Bulgarian musicians we find:

• Gûdulka – Two village women encountered by Lauren Brody, one in her 40s and the other in her 70s, played gûdulka.


• Tambura – An exception to the male tambura player in that many female singers accompany themselves on tambura. For example, Pena Grozeva has been described by Raina Katsarova in "Tri pokoleniya narodni pevitsi" (3 generations of singers).


• Gaida – Maria Stoyanova, pioneer and graduate of Kotel, teacher at the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Music in Plovdiv, member of the band "Kanarite" (The Canaries), formerly married to Thracian clarinetist Delčo Mitev.


• Accordion – Didi Kušleva also was a pioneer of Kotel, the first Bulgarian folk music school, opened in 1970 with many male instrumentalists and a few female vocalists who also studied instruments, primarily tambura or gûdulka.