ABOUT

With a voice to unlock the soul, Eugenia Georgieva is a singer of a deep, abounding grace. With a love of music past and present, she’s woven a vocal tapestry through folk music all the way to rock and electronica.

Born in Bulgaria and now living in London, her talent has brought rapturous comments (“exquisite” – San Diego Union-Tribune) for the purity and range of her music. Inspired by the traditional music of her homeland, in 2005 Eugenia formed the Perunika Trio, an a cappella group that’s not only delved deep into Bulgarian music, but also old songs from Macedonia, Russia and other Slavic countries. Their debut, Introducing Perunika Trio appeared to rave reviews across the globe, while the lauded follow-up, A Bright Star Has Risen, was equally well received. But Eugenia’s questing spirit hasn’t stopped at the Balkan borders. In 2012 Perunika Trio recorded Bulgarian Warabeuta for Sony Japan, cultural transformation that saw traditional Japanese songs, known as “warabe uta” sung in Bulgarian polyphonic style. To celebrate the release the trio travelled to Japan, appearing on television and radio, and headlining for two consecutive nights at the Live Image 12 festival in Kokusai Forum in Tokyo. In 2014 The Sunday Times named Perunika Trio “the most high profile (East European outfit) at the moment”.

Eugenia is also one-third of YANTRA, a groundbreaking vocal ensemble mixing Bulgarian, Indian and English Renaissance vocal music. Originally assembled as an experiment for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, the project has taken on a life of its own, guesting The Choir with Aled Jones in 2012 and working in the recording studio.

In demand in her own right, Eugenia has guested with world electronic pioneers Transglobal Underground on U.N.I.T.E> A Gathering of Strangers. That gave her the chance to work with like-minded souls such as Jim Moray and Martin Furey, as well as the legendary Bulgarian singer Yanka Rupkina.

Eugenia won first prize for a Folk Group at 6th International Russian Song Contest, performing the traditional Russian song “Oy, So Vechora S Polunochi”, in a duet with Polina Shepherd. She’s equally at home in Bulgarian, English, Russian, Hungarian, Serbian, Greek and Japanese, and is a gifted songwriter, crafting much of the material she performs.

Leader of the Veda Slovena Bulgarian Choir at University College, London, an ensemble specialising in Bulgarian and other Slavic sacred and secular music, Eugenia also spent three years as co-leader of the East European Choir at the same institution, in addition to teaching and conducting workshops.

Eugenia is a veteran of many sessions, including The Virgin Queen, which won an Ivor Novello Award for the Best TV Soundtrack, the soundtrack to Skeletons as well as numerous ads and studio work.

In the summer of 2015 Eugenia made her theatre debut in Euripides’ Bakkhai at London’s Almeida Theatre, a new version by Anne Carson. Directed by James McDonald, composer Orlando Gough, starring Ben Whishaw. The show made it to The Guardian’s Top 10 Theatre for 2015.

In May – June 2016 Eugenia toured the UK with Melanie Wilson’s Opera for the Unknown Woman, a bold re-imagining of the operatic form (co-composed with Polish composer Katarina Glowicka and produced by Fuel Theatre) in a brilliant cast featuring, among others, Patricia Rozario OBE and Adey Grummet.

June-July 2017 saw Eugenia performing at The Print Room with opera company Erratica in the amazing piece Remnants, based on Courtney Angela Brkic’s memoir The Stone Fields about the aftermath of the war in Bosnia in the 90s.

Eugenia’s debut solo album Po Drum Mome, an exploration of the joys and sorrows of Bulgarian folk song, was released on Riverboat Records on 20th April 2018.