Lilly Drumeva’s New Music Project – Love Affair
Bulgarian country singer and journalist, Lilly Drumeva, started a new music project – Love Affair. Its focus is on love songs from the distant and not-so-distant past, performed acoustically with new arrangements of two beautiful voices and accompanied by fine piano virtuosity.
The trio is comprised of: Lilly Drumeva – vocals; Dilyan Daynovski – vocals; and Mario Yotsov – piano.
The name was inspired by the famous 1994 American movie – a romantic drama starring Annette Bening and Warren Beatty.
The Love Affair project was unveiled on Saint Valentine’s Day, February 14th 2024, and enjoyed a huge success. The audience delighted in the captivating love ballads performed by two men and a woman – the classic love triangle. Pop, musical, country and favorite evergreens are the genres that the trio performed.
The next concert is on April 28th 2024 at the Renaissance Club, 24 Graf Ignatiev Street.
Lilly Drumeva is a singer, songwriter, founder and front musician of the most successful Bulgarian country and bluegrass band – Lilly of the West. She is also a music producer, arranger and publisher with 12 studio albums. She has written numerous original country songs and has organized European tours, concerts and festivals. The virtuosos of Lilly of the West have won prestigious prizes at competitions in the Netherlands, France and the USA. For 25 years now Lilly Drumeva has been a pioneer and driving force behind the development of country and bluegrass music on the Balkans. She is also on the board of the European and World Country and Bluegrass Music Association, where she represents Eastern Europe. Lilly Drumeva is a journalist as well, with over 20 years of experience at the BBC, Retro Radio, Radio Sofia, Horizon, Hristo Botev, Darik Radio, Balkan Bulgarian Television, and Radio Binar. She also specialized in country and bluegrass music in the USA under the Fulbright program. She is author of the book “In The Mood With Lilly – 50 Music Themes”, which presents the genres of country, bluegrass, blues, swing, rock ‘n’ roll and more. Additionally, she organizes the international Sofia Singer Songwriter Fest.
Mario Yotsov was born in 1985 in the city of Sofia. He has been playing the piano since he was six years old. He graduated from the Bulgarian National Academy of Music – Prof. Pancho Vladigerov State Music Academy, studying under Professor Pravda Goranova. He also studied classical singing with Professor Svilen Raychev. In 2009 he received an LRSM piano diploma. In 2015 he graduated with his Master’s program in Musical Education at the Theoretical Composers’ and Conductors’ Faculty of the National Academy of Music. Another specialization of his – in composing – was with Professor Krasimir Taskov. His creative work is dominated by chamber works and songs. He has taken part in competitions and master classes in piano and composing both within Bulgaria and abroad. He has been a piano and singing teacher at the Dimcho Debelyanov 1960 National Library since 2017, and has organized several concerts – “Mario Yotsov and Friends” – at which he performed his own compositions and accompanied other singers and instrumentalists.
Dilyan Daynovski is an amateur singer and actor. He has been part of the Theater Laboratoriya “Alma Alter” troupe for a few years and has participated in Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King and other performances. He loves classical rock and has special affinity for musicals. He says he does not know whether he is a singer or an actor first and foremost. He does say, however, that music is his first love and major passion. “Music is a faithful friend and has saved me from myself multiple times and from the sadness of daily life.”
