“One of Bulgaria’s most exciting contemporary voices and a rising world music star in the USA, Vlada Tomova leads an ensemble of the world’s top instrumentalists on both sides of the Atlantic. Vlada’s Balkan Tales offers a refreshingly different take on Bulgarian folk songs, infusing traditions from the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East into a contemporary acoustic sound, while illuminating the connection between traditions.”

The critically acclaimed full-length album, Balkan Tales, was hailed by The Boston Globe for its “haunting, otherworldly energy” and NY Music Daily as “a rich, intense treat, all the way through”. 

Additionally, I am the founder and leader of Yasna Voices, New York’s Bulgarian Women’s Choir, and the creator of the Bulgarian Alphabet Song. I’m also the principal force behind several musical troupes – Bulgarian Voices Trio, Songs of the Spice Road and The Lazarus Rose – that interweave ethnic music traditions within a twenty first century context. 

Most recently I opened a new page in my creative work by starting to write and perform my original songs, in Bulgarian, English and Spanish. Audiences from Sofia to New York to Havana were enthusiastic to hear the songs premiered live. Woven together with her Balkan Tales’ repertoire, my originals reveal a disarmingly personal new side of my work, while complementing and contrasting the folklore-routed songs. An album of my original songs, recorded in New York, Sofia and Havana is forthcoming.

Called a “Bulgarian musical ambassadress” my numerous appearances include Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival (New York), Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (New York), Gathering Friends festival at Moscow Conservatory, the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Chicago World Music Festival, Cumbre Tajin festival (Mexico), Fabrica de Arte Cubano and Havana World Music festival (Cuba), and National Palace of Culture and Bulgarian National Radio Hall in Sofia, Bulgaria, among many others. I collaborate on interdisciplinary projects, and is a guest vocalist in demand in the world music, film, and theatre communities. Notable collaborations include internationally celebrated band Balkan Beat Box, Bulgarian kaval virtuozo Theodosii Spassov, American avant-guard composer and sitarist Chris Rael, and Lebanese singer-songwriter Mike Massy.