BULGARIAN SINGING COURSE

AUGUST 2026 on ZOOM

A four-week intensive in the exquisite vocal music of Bulgaria.

Learn to sing the most resonant and precise vocal music in the world.

From the resonant yips, yodels, and cascades of the mountains, to the pulsating arabesques of the Thracian plain, we will establish the foundations of Bulgarian vocal production, resonance, breath, and ornamentation.

You will be amazed by what you can do.

This course is designed for a wide range of experience levels. The unique design of these workshops provides innovative practices and principles that are transformational for everyone – from beginners to the most seasoned professionals. No experience with Bulgarian music required.

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About the Course

1. Structure

The BULGARIAN SINGING COURSE is a four-week course of study.

Each week, we will have a two-hour live workshop with teaching, experimentation, coaching, and discussion.
Replays will be available for review.

Workshop day and time will be determined by the availability of the participants. Please complete the application and scheduler to provide your availability.

2. Teaching

I will bring principles, practices, and warm-ups to challenge and inspire you in each live weekly workshop.

We will focus on two regions of Bulgaria – Shop and Thrace. You will learn songs from each of these regions that we will work with for the duration of the course to practice and refine the techniques.

Our particular emphasis will be on the foundations of Bulgarian Singing- breath, resonance, and ornamentation; and the particulars of the Shop and Thrace regions- glottals/yodels, yips, slides, fast articulated passages, oscillation/ pulsation, cascades, and vocal acrobatics.

Specific areas of focus will include:

• Coordination & Ease in All Movement
• Breathing
• Resonance
• Agility, Articulation, Ornamentation
• Navigating Registers: Head, Chest, Passaggi
• Emotion in Performing
• Pre-Performance Energy / Heightened States
• Consistency in Quality

We will work with these in synthesized practices. For example: a Bulgarian vocal warm-up that integrates coordination, breathing, resonance, ornamentation, and pre-performance energy.

3. Coaching

You are invited to be coached on what we are learning in the course, or any other Balkan repertoire you are working on from a physical/artistic/vocal/coordination standpoint.

You will be coached at the level of your skill and experience. If you are new to this work, you will be given the information to create the foundation you need. If you are fluent in this work, you will be coached accordingly and lovingly challenged.

You will have access to recordings of each session for review.

The magic of an intimate group cohort is that you get the benefits of others’ work as well as your own. You experience everyone’s coaching, which provides deeper immersion and exponential growth.

4. Tuition

As a summer special, The BULGARIAN SINGING COURSE August 2026 is offered at $495.

{That’s less than the cost of one private session with Kate.}

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This four-week intensive is perfect for you if:

You want to safely and authentically sing the exquisite vocal music of Bulgaria.

You study and perform Bulgarian music and have reached a plateau in your progress, or are ready for deeper mastery.

You want to optimize resonance in any singing style – especially Balkan and chest dominant styles.

You want to have control and ease in your breathing for long phrases and quick changes.

You want to deepen your precision with ornamentation and agility.

You are open to being lovingly challenged to improve your art and your craft to see what is truly possible.

You want to learn how optimal coordination can improve your singing and artistry in an integrated process.

You want to belong to an intimate community of artists who are committed to living as fully as possible.

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JOIN THE BULGARIAN SINGING COURSE

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About Kate Conklin

Kate Conklin is a performance coach, soprano, and interpreter of the highly demanding vocal music of Bulgaria. She has been studying, teaching, and performing Bulgarian music for nearly 30 years. Kate sings in seventeen languages and is known for her playful gravitas.

Kate has spent decades performing professionally and coaching the best performers in the world. Kate’s process has emerged from deep study in the fields of optimal performance, optimal acoustics, flow state, stress physiology, neurobiology, systems theory, Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization, anthropology, philosophy, creativity, and neuro- and bio-plasticity.

Kate was a Fulbright Scholar to Bulgaria in 2002, where she rehearsed and performed as a member of The Ivan Spasov Academic Folk Choir of the Plovdiv Academy of Music, developing her work in regional solo repertoire, choral literature, conducting, and pedagogy with Anka Kushleva (of the famous Sestri Kushlevi from the Rhodope Mountains) and Professor Dr. Svetla Stanilova, the revered conductor, singing teacher, pedegogue, writer and scholar. Kate has presented about her work as a singer, interpreter of Bulgarian music, and extraordinary performance coach at The American Film Composers Forum Salon, and in a TEDx performance/talk.

For two years, Kate was the vocalist for Cirque du Soleil’s “O,” the resident aquatic show at Bellagio, Las Vegas, where she performed approximately nine hundred shows. Her performing includes singing for film and television, premiering original new works, and collaborating with composers and choreographers.

In 2006, Kate was invited to join the music faculty at California Institute of the Arts, where she founded and directed the highly acclaimed Bulgarian Vocal Ensembles and served on the voice faculty for four years. She has taught Voice, Alexander Technique, and founded and directed Bulgarian choirs for CalArts, Community Arts Partnership, California State Summer School for the Arts, The Oakwood School, and Machine Project. She has been a teaching artist and lecturer at CalArts, Pomona College, Azusa Pacific University, Los Angeles College of Music, Longy School of Music of Bard College, USC, UCLA, UNLV, San Francisco Conservatory, Santa Monica College, and The Marlborough School.

Kate is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique and holds BFA and MFA degrees from CalArts in Vocal Performance with emphasis in opera, contemporary, free improvisation, North Indian Classical, and Balkan vocal music.

Kate has two records with her musical and life partner, Bryan Landers. Mesechinko Ljo, Songs of Bulgaria and WIDOW, Songs of Greece and Macedonia. She is also in development with her one-woman opera, RECREATIONAL SCIENCE, written for her by Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning composer Javier Navarrette.

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Testimonials

“Kate Conklin’s understanding of the complexity of Bulgarian folk music/singing is very sophisticated.

Her coaching method is integrative and multi-dimensional as she is considerate of both the internal body apparatus as well as any external components that make a sound. She is a powerhouse of a singer and a coach!

If you want to learn how to sing this beautiful music, Kate is the best expert in the industry!”

“I LOVE LOVE LOVED the coaching sessions! I learned so much not only by working on my own quandaries but also by observing how others were working through the same material. I learned so much about my own voice and what it’s capable of, and I found it incredibly thrilling to be a “beginner” singer again. I use many of the warmups/ exercises from this course in my regular practice, and actually have seen major improvements in certain areas where I felt less comfortable previously (coloratura, phrases in the middle-low part of range, overall agility, and suppleness). I can genuinely say that our weekly coaching sessions were something I looked forward to SO MUCH each and every week. I am without a doubt a better musician coming out of this course/ coaching sessions than I was previously.”

“There was such a sense of camaraderie in the group – sharing delight in each other’s breakthroughs and care for one another’s challenges, and I felt that this glorious collective energy really spurred on the creative process during the times in between each coaching session.  It was so special to be invited to witness other singers’ processes, to all share in being vulnerable, and to feel immensely safe in doing that. The coaching was really supportive, really holistic, really informative, and there was an undeniable ethos of championing and celebrating one another in the group!

What for me has made all of this possible is the holistic foundation in which Kate teaches this music. Of course, this music stands alone in being extraordinarily rich, beautiful, and rewarding to engage with, but the way that Kate presents it, the way that she engages with learning, the way that she supports, fosters, and lovingly guides you through the process of actually mastering it is just insanely powerful. This music is complex! The techniques are enigmatic! Dora Hristova says that only Bulgarians can sing it. It’s shrouded in mystery. And for that reason, it can be incredibly difficult to sing. Without guidance, it could potentially be quite problematic and complex to master. It’s not hard to see how people have got themselves in trouble with all kinds of issues involving forcing, nasality, and constriction – and yet, under Kate’s guidance, the learning of this music has had the opposite effect. 

I have learned a way to re-imagine singing with my whole body in mind. I feel as though I can embark on learning to sing anything now, and know that my process will ensure that I can be safe. Not only do I get to experience a deeper level of enjoyment in my singing now, but I’ve also discovered a kind of resonance, freedom, and mobility that I have never experienced before. It’s been really empowering. It’s shown me that what I can do with singing as a whole – regardless of genre – is able to be unlimited in its potential. And this is a profound realisation.”

“I found the Bulgarian course totally enthralling! It gave me such a deeper appreciation for this magical music. I loved the coaching sessions and watching everyone grow from week to week. I look forward to future courses that deepen my love for this music even more. I also really loved being challenged by the music. It feels more like a long-term relationship than a fling. Haha!”

“Before working with Kate, I was about a year into beginning to train with my voice again, after letting it go for some years. Balkan music was a discovery that changed my whole life and beckoned me to be immersed. Prior to working with Kate, I had been taking workshops with Bulgarian vocal ensembles as well as taking lessons with another teacher for several months.

I was searching for someone who could help me articulate, distillate, and embody this sound and this music more deeply. After working with Kate, I really felt more connected to the soul of Bulgarian music.

Coaching with Kate was an amazing experience that changed the way I experienced song in my own body. Learning about and incorporating the Alexander Technique is unique to working with Kate, and pairing that with training in Bulgarian singing, I was able to access and more reliably execute ornaments and phrases that were previously altogether baffling to me.

The songs she teaches in the Bulgarian course are so beautiful, and the depth of working with each song has created a stronger and more playful, free vocal practice for me across the board.

I’ve studied with Kate, and it’s very different than training with other teachers. She’s incredibly professional, playful, and cares first and foremost about helping people to create with the highest quality possible, whatever it is that a person most desires to create. It’s a transformative experience that has opened up so much for me in my life, both as a singer and as a human.

I would highly recommend working with Kate for anyone who knows they’re ready to go to the next level and who wants to explore this incredible music more deeply and with more precision than ever before. “