50 stories - Valia Gianinska
25 July 2022 Events and Discussions
Melbourne
Folk Music Singer
I have been living in Australia with my family since 2004. I take the fact that I landed at Sydney Airport on my birthday as a sign of good luck. I migrated to Australia from Athens, after spending more than a decade in beautiful Greece.
While living in Sofia, Bulgaria, I was a member of the oldest Bulgarian choir Gotse Delchev. From the very beginning of my settlement in Sydney, I started searching for a choir performing Bulgarian folk music. This led me to the Australian Accapella choir Martenitsa. As a member of Martenitsa for 5 years, I took part in a number of performances with the highlight being participating as a warm-up group in the concert of the famous Serbian musician Goran Bregovic at Sydney Opera House in 2008.
Individually, I have performed at the Bulgarian Embassy in Canberra and the Bulgarian Church Hall in Melbourne for the Day of the Bulgarian Culture and Cyrillic Alphabet –celebrated annually on 24 May, at numerous multicultural festivals in Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne. Being able to speak Greek fluently has allowed me to become a member of a Greek choir in Oakleigh.
Currently residing in Melbourne, I am delighted to know that my birthday once again signifies something remarkable. This time it is Melbourne Day, which is celebrated on 30 August. As a speaker of three languages, I enormously enjoy performing at the annual celebration honoring Harmony Day on 21 March. I admit that it is a day of cultural respect for everyone who calls Australia Home and for that reason it turns to be my favorite event for singing performances.
The story is from the book “Bulgarians in Melbourne” (2017) from Radost Racheva, who is also author of the photographs, provided pro bono for the project.
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