The singers' intonation seems to have slid way back into the narrowness of the throat. Their timbre sounds sharp, sometimes even metallic, the changing of registers hard and cracked. They hardly even open their mouths as one is taught to do starting a forte. These 20 women are doing this like their ancestor have done from time immemorial. The roots of their singing technique lies in the Orient of the Middle Ages, some even suspect in the Thracia of pre-Christian times.
Some tones even range as far down as a low tenor.
As far as the wearing out the vocal cords is concerned - in contrast to our opera singers the voices of the Bulgarian women singers still sound youthful and clear as a bell when they have passed the age of sixty. The Bulgarian Women's Choir are 20 singers from all different parts of Bulgaria who have been trained in traditional Bulgarian music as well as in Western art music. They are able to merge the tone color and vocal techniques of the Bulgarian traditional music with the complex musical structures of new composition. Concert tours have taken the choir around the world to the USA, Mexico, Japan, India, and practically all Western and Eastern European countries. Gregory Petkov is the group's conductor.