site.btaSinger Yordanka Hristova and BTA Director General Kiril Valchev Receive Golden Age Awards

Bulgarian singer Yordanka Hristova and BTA Director General Kiril Valchev received their Golden Age awards on Tuesday at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Culture, after being unable to attend the official event on November 30.

Valchev explained that he had been absent due to his visit to Odesa, and invited Hristova to give a concert there. Hristova said that she would gladly perform for the Bulgarian community abroad.

Yordanka Hristova was honoured with the Golden Age Award with necklace and certificate for her outstanding contribution to the development and promotion of Bulgarian culture and art. The same distinction was conferred on the Director of the Regional Museum of History in Ruse Nikolay Nenov and actor Rousy Chanev.

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev received the honorary Golden Age - Seal of Tsar Simeon the Great, gold class, and certificate, for his significant contribution to the development and promotion of Bulgarian culture and art. The same award was presented to film director Vladimir Kraev, cinema writer Marin Damyanov, director and writer Pancho Tzankov, the Director of the State Puppet Theater in Burgas Hristina Arsenova-Andreeva, journalist and screenwriter Zelma Almaleh, actress Yanina Kasheva, engineer Angel Angelov, researcher and author Neda Antonova, and the founder of the Yard of the Cyrillic Alphabet in Pliska Karen Alexanyan.

In his remarks upon receiving the honour, Kiril Valchev said that he accepts it as a recognition of BTA’s significant contribution to the development and promotion of Bulgarian culture and art. "The award’s citation describes BTA as a contemporary model of a national media outlet and highlights the lasting imprint in Bulgaria’s cultural space and digital heritage left by the entirely Bulgarian LIK font created by BTA, which is also used by the Ministry of Culture," Kiril Valchev said.

Culture Minister Marian Bachev congratulated the two awardees, highlighting the symbolism of St Mina’s Day, celebrated as a protector of the Christian family.

"Mr Valchev, who travels the world and builds communities like families, receives his award on this day or all days. And Ms Hristova is a mother to generations of Bulgarians," the Minister said.

Valchev noted that BTA’s photo archive contains over two million images, certainly including photos that Hristova does not have. He shared his idea of publishing a special issue of LIK magazine dedicated to her, adding that after the digitalization of the archive next year, she will be able to access everything ever published about her by BTA.

He also promised to send her the issue of LIK dedicated to Georgi Partsalev and Georgi Kaloyanchev, with whom she was close friends.

The BTA Director General added that, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the special issue of BTA's LIK magazine "Bulgaria in UNESCO" has been translated into English and French, and every delegate at the 47th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Paris received a copy. The issue dedicated to Christo and Jeanne-Claude is currently being translated into English, French and German and will be presented in Germany and France.

"I am speechless," Hristova said emotionally upon receiving her award. She presented the Minister with the first two volumes of her books, noting that the third will be published in a few days.

"Nothing is as pleasing to God as a grateful and appreciative soul," Kiril Valchev quoted St John Chrysostom, whose words are collected in the Old Bulgarian anthology Zlatostruy, compiled in the First Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Tsar Simeon the Great. "If someone mocks you… pray for them," he paraphrazed another of the saint’s teachings in response to those who might treat such distinctions with irony, noting that the award recognizes the efforts of many people at BTA to promote Bulgarian culture. "But St John Chrysostom also wrote something else that is particularly useful when receiving awards: Do not exalt yourself, but restrain your pride," Valchev added.