Boris Christoff World famous Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff was a phenomenon in opera. Emblematic artist of the Russian opera classics, he was unbeaten in the role of Boris Godunov of the eponymous opera by Mussorgsky. Philip II in Don Carlos by Verdi is another memorable role of the Bulgarian royal bass. Performances were inimitable and his church Slavonic Chants - hardly a Bulgarian who does not know his "Mnogaya leta ”(To many years to come). In 1986 the Bulgarian Academy of Arts and Culture was opened in Rome - the great Bulgarian donated his home to the Bulgarian state to care for the development of young opera singers. And donated his home in Sofia, also in favor of art. The bass genius was born in 1914 in l Bulgaria and died in 1993 in Rome.
Valya Balkanska
Valya Balkanska is “the space voice of Bulgaria”. The voice of our most renowned folk singer was sent into space in 1977. The unparalleled performance of the song " Izlel Deliu rebel" sounds there for at least another 60 000 years. She was born in 1942 in the village of Arda, Smolyan. Her great Rhodope heart sings with the same love and joy in the home and neighborhood, and in the largest capitals in the world. "Let's let the stars of heaven”. The important thing is to have genuine people on earth ", said Valya at the Balkan ceremony for the second star in the Famous Walk of Fame.
Ghena Dimitrova
Great opera singer Ghena Dimitrova was born in the village of Beglezh, Pleven . Against her father’s will at the age of 20 Gena began studying singing at the Music Academy with Prof. Chr. Brambarov. Her incredible voice, a professor who says it is "a voice that is born once every one hundred years". Having conquered the world's opera stages, Gena was proclaimed queen of Verdi voices and was awarded the prize "Giacomo Puccini's brilliant interpretation of central characters in operas by Puccini, the" Golden Verdi”, an award previously given only to Italian opera singers ... She was the first foreign singer who received an invitation to open a triple of the season, "La Scala" - a huge honor, equivalent to an absolute recognition of her qualities.One of the greatest recognitions in her life are the words of the great Herbert von Karajan, who, hearing her for the first time, enthusiastically exclaimed: " I have lived to hear a voice that only gods deserve!"
Lili Ivanova
Prima of the Bulgarian pop music , Lili Ivanova has issued 32 albums (two Gold records are in Europe), over 10 000 live concerts and recorded over 500 songs.Her first famous song "Saturday Night" was released in 1963 .The same year her first album was issued in Romania - the first LP of the Bulgarian singer, issued abroad. In 1963, she took part in shows at Ambassador Hotel and the Constantin Tanase Music Hall Theatre in Bucharest. Her brilliant performance was broadcast live four times on the national television of Rumania. In her career, Lili Ivanova has performed live at more than 10 000 concerts both in Bulgaria and abroad.In 1988 she won the first prize in Paris , France.One of her biggest hits are "Camino", "You know my dream, I love you," It is our summer, "Warning", "Heavy Wedding", "My Mother," "Gambling", "Doomed Souls "Detelina" Cricket "," Wind, I swore you “….In 1997, the International Association of women nominated her as one of the most famous women of the twentieth century.On May 11, 2006 Lili Ivanova got a star on the Bulgarian Walk of Fame.She has performed at a lot of live concerts all over the world.
Raina Kabaivanska
Raina Kabaivanska is an opera singer, one of most important soprano voices in the second half of the twentieth century, Graduate of the Bulgarian State Conservatory in 1958 Kabaivanska was able to secure a specialization in Italy. One year later she debuted in the role of Zhorzheta and Puccini's "Pagliacci" on Leonkavalo in Fano.Later she won a competition for young artists at the school of La Scala. Kabaivanska's relationship with La Scala remains intense - "Falstaff", "Turandot" to Busoni, "Sister Angelica", "Don Carlos", "Mephistopheles", "Rientsi. She also approves on the American opera scene - singing in New York, Chicago, Washington, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas.With hard work and concentration Kabaivanska polished all the roles that brought her international fame.Luciano Pavarotti says about her: "the past is Tosca of Maria Callas. Tosca of our time is Raina Kabaivanska.“
-Footballers:
Valeri Bojinov
Valeri Bojinov is a Bulgarian football striker. Currently he is a player on the Italian club Parma, rented from Manchester City, and previously played for Italian "Fiorentina", "Lecce and Juventus. He has 19 matches for the national football team of Bulgaria, in which he noted three goals. Bojinov recently held the record for transfer and sale of Bulgarian athletes after his passage from Lecce to Fiorentina on January 31 2005, for the sum of 13 million euros. He debuted for the national team at the European Championships in Portugal in 2004 against Italy. His first goal for 'A' team he scored on August 11th 2004 against Ireland.
Valeri Bojinov still holds the record for the youngest foreign player playing in Serie A- just having turned 15-years he entered as a substitute for the team of "treatments" in Juventus team lost. In 2006, played for Juventus after exchange with Adrian Mutu, who was taken from Fiorentina. His debut for "Juventus is for the Coppa Italia against Napoli. In 2007, passes in Manchester City for 4.1 million pounds.
Georgi Asparuhov Georgi Asparuhov - Gundy, the legend of Bulgarian football fens of all times, was born in 1943 in Sofia. A superb player and sportsman on the pitch Gundy attracts the audience like a magnet. He is the first Bulgarian football player, who received an offer to play in a professional team overseas. All meetings of our national team remain glorious history of Bulgarian football, which participated in the "miracle" Gundy. The unforgettable Gundy dies in a car crash - when he was only 28 years old.
Dimitar Berbatov
Dimitar Berbatov is a Bulgarian footballer who played for Pirin (Blagoevgrad), CSKA (Sofia), Bayer Leverkusen. With the German team he signed a contract for 4.5 years and the amount of transfer was 4.5 million DEM. In May 2006, passed in the English team Tottenham Hotspur for 16 million euros. His father and his grandfather are former players,his younger brother named Assen, is also a footballer, currently playing in Pirin( Blagoevgrad).On July 29, 2006 Dimitar Berbatov has 31 goals in 49 appearances for the Bulgarian national football team, which ranks him third place in the ranking of the best scorers in the national team of all time. Before him are only Hristo Bonev (47 goals) and Hristo Stoichkov (35 goals). He was declared a footballer № 1 in Bulgaria for 2002, 2004 and 2005.At the moment Berbatov is playing for one of the most famous and powerful teams in the world-Manchester United.
Yordan Lechkov
Yordan Lechkov is a famous Bulgarian footballer. At the age of 18 he debited professional football. In 1992, he was dressed in the shirt of Hamburger Shportferayn (German team )and became the first Bulgarian used in the Bundesliga.In 1994 at the World Cup in the United States, he was one of the "golden boys" of Bulgaria.Lechkov has also played for the French soccer team Olympique Marseille and Besiktas ,Turkey.In 1998 he ended the football career and devoted to the development of business in his hometown of Sliven, Bulgaria.In 2003 he was elected as its mayor.
Martin Petrov
Martin Petrov is a Bulgarian football player , born in Vratsa in 1979 with a sharp, powerful stroke with the left leg. In 1999, he was purchased in Servet(Geneva), the champion of Switzerland in 1999, and became winner of the national cup in 2001, In 2001 he was bought by the German team Wolfsburg. Designated Footballer № 1 in Bulgaria in 2006. In the summer of 2007, he moved to Manchester City for the amount of 4.7 million pounds.
Hristo Stoichkov
Hristo Stoichkov is a Bulgarian football player and coach, one of the most famous people in the world.During The World Cup in 1994 in the United States he won the prize for goalmaster, scoring six goals.In the same year he won the prestigious award Golden Ball.In the national team of Bulgaria has 83 matches and 37 goals.Among his individual awards are: No. 1 player in Bulgaria - 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, "Golden Shoe" - top scorer in Europe - 1990. "Silver Ball" of France Football - 1992, Golden onz "to" Onz World Cup - 1992, Golden Ball France Football in 1994, sports the number 1 on the Balkans - in 1994, No. 1 athlete of Bulgaria - 1994 and many others.In the period 2004-2008, Hristo Stoichkov was coaching The National football team of Bulgaria.
-Gymnasts and athletics:
Albena Denkova and Maxim Stavisky
Bulgarian “ lady of ice” and her partner Maxim Stavisky combine two important qualities – strong-mindedness and unusual talent .They overcame all difficulties on the road to the world-wide fame .In 2006 in Calgari Albena and Maxim won the gold medal and became world champions .This was the first gold medal for Bulgaria in figure skating. Bulgarian figure skaters grabbed the gold medal for the second time in their career in Tokyo , Japan in 2007.Bulgaria's sweethearts have been planning to get married someday but they said there was never enough time off from skating and practice to do that. World Ice Skating Champions 2006 Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski got finally married in end of December 2006 in a small Bulgarian mountain village.
Anelia RalenkovaAnelia Ralenkova is one of the gymnasts of Bulgaria with the most awards. She won the incredible 10 gold medals at World and European championships. She is a gymnast with unique style , intelligent and original routines, dramatic and exciting performances. She is said to be “the actress in rhythmic gymnastics”. Since 1991 Anelia Ralenkova lives and works in the United States.
Jordan Jovtchev
Jordan Jovtchev is one of the most successful Bulgarian gymnasts.In his career he has won four Olympic medals - one silver and three bronze. Twice he was double world champion on rings of land and the world championships in Ghent and Anaheim in 2001 and 2003 ,a double world runner in Debrecen in 2002 . At the Olympic Games in Athens he won the silver medal.Jordan Jovtchev is defined as the best athlete in the Balkans in 2003.
Stefka Kostadinova
Stefka Kostadinova is a Bulgarian prima athletics.Kostadinova has seven gold medals at world championships and was European champion in the hall and outdoors.In 1996 she became Olympic champion in Atlanta, USA.In 1998 she won the silver medal of the Games in Seoul..On August 30, 1987 Stefka Kostadinova set up the world record in high jump - 209 cm, which is still not broken.Ten years later, formally renounces her sporting career.In 2002 she was elected Vice-Chairman of the State Agency for Youth and Sports. Since November 11, 2005 is the chairman of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee.
-Artists:
Vladimir Dimitrov-The Master
Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master is the most famous Bulgarian artist. For him, Chavdar Mutafov ,a critic, writes: "... Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master carries in himself the soul of our former masters of the whole past and secure the future of a whole”. Fate has given the most prominent Bulgarian painter thousand vicissitudes of life.. He died in poverty, though his talent is incomparable, and that almost every picture painted by him turned into an event.
Christo Javacheff
Christo Javacheff - known worldwide as Christo - is a Bulgarian artist, one of the greatest avant-garde of our time.He comes from an old family from Razgrad , Bulgaria.His grandfather was an academician Annan Javacheff who discovered the ruins of the ancient Roman city Abritos. His brother is the famous actor Hanany Javacheff.From 1953 Christo studied at the Art Academy in Sofia, but he emigrated in 1957 and was deprived of Bulgarian citizenship.He is the creator of artistic packaging technique. He has packaged Mon Nyof bridge in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin and others.His projects are The Umbrellas in Japan ,the wrapped trees in Japan , the Gates in Central Park , New Yorkand others. Working together with his wife, Jeanne-Claude.
-Tennis-players:
Magdalena Maleeva Magdalena Maleeva is the youngest of the tennis trio Maleevi sisters and the youngest champion for women in Bulgaria.She was born in 1975 in Sofia. She began her professional career in 1989 and ended it in 2005.For sixteen years in the elite world of professional tennis, Maggie has 439 wins in official matches, 10 singles titles and 5 - pairs.In 1995 she defeated the established names in tennis such as Gabriela Sabatini, Mary Pierce, Natasha Zvereva, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario..In 1996 Magdalena Maleeva became number four in the world rankings.
Sesil KaratantchevaSesil Radoslavova Karatantcheva is a Bulgarian tennis player, born in 1989, in Sofia. Her father and coach is Radoslav Karatantchev. She began playing tennis at 5 years and in 2008 competed for Bulgaria, then took Kazakh citizenship and competed for Kazakhstan.In 2001 Sesil beat Alisa Kleybanova and won the Orange Bowl (12). For half a year she was training at the famous tennis school of Nick Bollettieri.In 2005 she was involved with "Black Sea Elite" in the European Club Championships in Rennes, France, where the team became European champion in the composition of Virginia Trifonova, Cecil Karatancheva, Maria Penkova and Tsvetana Pironkova.In the same year Sesil was named one of the most prosperous tennis players in the world because in 2004, she won Roland Garros for the girls, and in for a period of two years (2004-2005) moved up from position 526 to 35 in the rankings of the Women's Tennis Association(WTA).
-Wrestlers:
Dan Koloff
The champion in Freestyle Dan Koloff missed only two victories in the 1500 official matches in which he confronted opponents on five continents. Born in 1892 in Sevlievo. Poverty forced him to seek a better life in America. He started working as a stevedore, Dan impresses everyone with his unique power and was soon invited to the professional ring. In the period 1918 - 1925, he was the strongest fighter of the United States. Won matches in the sports arenas of the Americas, Europe, Japan, China, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Twice winner of the title "diamond zone",he was called "King Kong" and "King of wrestling” and was known for his charity. Bulgaria bought one of the first airliners with the donations of Dan Koloff.The genius fighter died from tuberculosis in his homeland in 1940.
-Chess-players:
Veselin Topalov
Vesselin Topalov is the Bulgarian grandmaster, world champion in chess for the period 2005-2006time - he has won the world chess championship after the tournament in Saint Louis, Brazil, in 2005.Born on March 15, 1975 in Rousse. His father introduced him to chess at the age of eight years. When he was only fourteen years old he won the world title in three categories for adults. In January 2006, Veselin Topalov was among the few chess players to cross ELO 2800 (2801) and ranked second in the top 100, just after Gary Kasparov.The highest rate of personal ELO for Topalov in the top 100 ranking of FIDE was2813 (July 2006).Winner of many international super, Topalov has won over all known grandmasters in the world.
-Inventors:
John Atanasov John Atanasov - the father of the computer was proud of his Bulgarian origin. The genius inventor was born on October 4, 1903 in Hamilton. His father, Ivan Atanasoff, left an orphan after the April uprising, emigrated to the United States. There he became an electrical engineer and married Iva Lucena, mother of John, a mathematics teacher. His idea to create the perfect computing machine led to the discovery of the computer. John Atanasov was awarded the highest prize of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for Pioneer Research, discovery and construction of the first digital computer ...", which is the basis of all modern computers.
-Biathlonists:
Ekaterina Dafovska
Ekaterina Dafovska is the most successful Bulgarian biathlonists. In her career she has won an Olympic title, a European title and two bronze medals at world championships and a bronze medal at the European Championships.Ekaterina won the first and so far only Olympic title for Bulgaria in 1998 in the course 15 kilometers individually. In the poll for best athlete in the Balkans in 1998 Ekaterina Dafovska ranks first.
-Saints:
Ivan Rilski (John of Rila)
John of Rila is revered as a patron saint of the Bulgarian people.All the other Orthodox honour him too.Centuries ago, his cult reached Siberia.St. John of Rila is the first Bulgarian hermit and discoverer of the most majestic monastery - The Rila Monastery – in Bulgaria. With God's blessing the hermit performed miracles: he exempted from evil spirits, cured diseases and disabilities.His fame spread throughout the country and only reached the capital. Using one of his trips to Sofia, king Peter I walked about 120-kilometer distance from the mountain to see the pious man.John, however returned the king’s gold sent to him by Peter.This further increased his fame .The relics of Saint John of Rila are stored in the Rila Monastery.
-Revolutionaries:
Vasil Levski Vasil Levski - the Apostle of Freedom, was born in Karlovo in 1837. Organizer of the Bulgarian national revolution, creator of the Internal Revolutionary Organization, he was deeply convinced of the strength of the Bulgarians to gain their independence by themselves. True to the belief "If I win, I will win for all people, if I lose, I will lose only myself," he devoted his life to fight for pure and sacred republic ". Captured by the Turks, Levski was sentenced to death as the greatest enemy of the Ottoman Empire and was hanged in 1873 in the then outskirts of Sofia. He is considered the greatest personality of those hard times for our country.
Hristo Botev Hristo Botev was a genius poet, revolutionary, ecstatic figure of the Bulgarian national movement.Participated actively in the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee (BRCC) and the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee (BRK).He led 200 people during the April uprising, and on May 17, 1876 came down the ship Radetzki near Kozloduy.After heavy fighting died at the foot of Mount House, Vratsa.In his short life Botev gave much strength and energy to journalistic activity.He issued a lot of newspapers.Hristo Botev is the author of immortal verses.
