Biography
Dr. Kiril Popov, Stavrophore oikonomos, was born on December 5, 1955. He graduated in 1975 from the Sofia Theological Seminary, and in 1981 from the Theological Academy. In 1982, by decision of St. Synod of the BOC, he was sent as a graduate student to the Moscow Theological Academy, where he specialized in choral conducting, individually studied harmony and composition with the distinguished Russian composer, musicologist and pedagogue Vladimir Martinov and defended his candidate (doctoral) thesis on the topic “Development of the Octoechos in Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox churches”. At the end of 1984, he graduated from the conducting class at the Moscow Theological Academy with a big concert of the mixed choir at the class and was awarded the “Golden tuning fork” award.
After his return to Bulgaria, he taught Eastern church singing (1985-1989) and choral singing (1991-2000) at the Sofia Theological Seminary, conducted the choir at the “St. Nedelya” cathedral – Sofia (assistant conductor 1985-1990 and conductor 1991-2000), and in 1989-1990 he worked as a research assistant at the Church History and Archives Institute under the Bulgarian Patriarchate.
In 1987-1988, he completed post-graduate qualification in choral conducting at the Bulgarian State Conservatory (now Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music – Sofia) in the conducting class of Prof. Vasil Arnaudov. This study of his ended with a one-hour exam-concert on 11.11.1988 in the great hall of the conservatory with the performance of church chants by the mixed choir at the Patriarchal Cathedral “St. Alexandar Nevsky”. Since March 17, 1986, he has been the conductor of the Sofia Priests’ Choir.
In the summer of 2000, he took the priesthood. Since 01.11.2013 he has been a parish priest in the Metropolitan Cathedral “St. Nedelya” in Sofia.
As a conductor, he has released recordings on gramophone records and a total of eight CDs with the Sofia Priests’ Choir (1992, 1999, 2010 and 2012), the men's choir at the “St. Nedelya” Cathedral (1999 and 2002), the men’s choir “St. John of Rila Miracle Worker” (1994) and the men’s choir “St. equal-to-apostles Cyril and Methodius” (1997).
He composed and arranged more than 100 church hymns and secular songs. He gives concerts at home and abroad with various choirs. He is also engaged in musicological and editorial activities. He has numerous appearances as a music producer, music arranger and performer on church-themed CD and DVD recordings.
In 2012, the first part of a collection of his compositions “Orthodox Choral Works” was published, and in 2020 – the second part. He is a laureate of Bulgarian and foreign competitions for composers.
At the end of 2012, he was accepted as a member of the Union of Bulgarian Composers.
He is a holder of the order of the Russian Orthodox Church “Venerable Sergius of Radonezh” – third degree (2014) and the order of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church “Saint Clement of Ohrid” – first degree (2016).
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