Biography
Music and painting
Music for me is an inspiration which comes from God. It helps me feel and understand what life is. I close my eyes and I see pictures from nature, I feel people’s emotions, I sense cultures and civilizations. Those imaginary pictures I transform in tones, tonalities, scale, sonority, rhythm. I turn them into music.
And if I replace the word “music” in the previous sentences with the word “painting” absolutely nothing would change for me. The language those artistic forms use is very similar. In painting I also use tones, tonalities, scale and sonority. The alternation of lines and colors creates the dynamics of a picture. In the painting learning process of I have felt my passion for music. Gradually composing melodies became a necessity, just as the painting of pictures was. Those two are already something inseparable.
Music is kind of a sacrament. Making music reminds me of a religious ritual – the musician perceives inspiration from above and recreates it in something tangible. That is why the harmonious and sublime music brings the presence of the divine. Just like fine arts and all the other arts, it is an expression of a supreme spiritual sensibility and a great responsibility.
Denitza Seraphimova is a Bulgarian artist who graduated from the Art School in Varna (1998) and the National Academy of Arts in Sofia (2002), majoring scenography. Almost everyone in her family is a painter and she was raised in the artistic atmosphere of paintings, exhibitions and art. Her father, though, an art critic and a connoisseur of musical styles, filled her childhood with classical and contemporary music, and got her acquainted with the best of blues, soul, rock, funk and jazz works of the greatest musicians in the world. She was greatly inspired and started singing, also revealing a huge talent for improvisation and composition. As early as her high school years, her performances and jazz improvisations had a magnetic impact on the audiences in clubs, exhibition halls and festivals.
Nikolay Ivanov – a renowned Bulgarian musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist and the founder of Om Art Formation – found her and started working with her on different musical projects. Some very serious concerts ensued, featuring excellent musicians, TV shows, film music recordings (Warming Up Yesterday’s Lunch, 2002, Director: Kostadin Bonev), where Denitza Seraphim perfected her vocal and professional skills. The style is World Music with a complex combination of eastern and western intonations, of Christian, medieval and ethno motifs, of space and universal sounding, of deep dramatic and mystical states. Denitza Seraphim’s voice allows her to achieve this difficult musical symbiosis – it has a wide range, from the crystal clear heights to the dense and almost unnatural for a woman depths. Her voice possesses a noble softness, it is gentle and sensual but it has strength and scope, it attempts complex, yet controlled ornamentation, unexpected intervals and braves upon daring transitions or poses in luscious protruding tones, brimming with internal hues. She also possesses another rare quality – she sings her songs in a language of her own, filled with an ancient, melodic and exciting sound. It allows her to concentrate mainly on the musical experience, on the momentary improvisation and at the same time to feel absolutely free.
She has been called the Bulgarian Lisa Gerrard – the unique vocalist from the legendary Dead Can Dance from whom in 2012 Denitza Seraphim and the Irfan group, with which she worked, received personal congratulations on their musical achievement. She has been singing with Irfan for over a decade now in Bulgaria, Belgium, Holland and Germany. The French musical label Prikosnovénie produced three albums of the group, which it distributes all over the world. Denitza Seraphim has composed the female vocal parts in the albums "Irfan" and "Seraphim" and in three of the songs in "The Eternal Return". The style yet again is World Music. The tird album The "Eternal Return" was named the best ethno album for 2015.
She also works with other musician, such as the exceptionally talented Kalin Nikolov. Together they created the music for many theatre performances of the great director Yavor Gardev. Kalin Nikolov was awarded the prestigious Bulgarian awards for original theatre music Askeer in 2007 for King Lear, directed by Yavor Gardev and Icarus in 2012 for Richard III, directed by Plamen Markov, but he never failed to accentuate on Denitza Serafimova’s contribution, who is the composer and singer of the vocals in the works. In 2014, she and the Irfan group received the award for original music at the International Puppet Theatre Festival The Golden Dolphin in Varna. Their compositions and her voice are the main and very impressive element in Boyan Ivanov’s play Silent Legends, with State Puppet Theatre Varna, which was awarded an Icarus.
In 2014, Denitza Seraphim composed and sang the vocals in the work of the French composer Jonathan Mayer - "Eos", which, with its epic and dramatic musical impact, is especially suitable for large scale film productions. She also created vocals for two of albums by composer Lyubomir Yordanov in such an epical genre and new-age stile. Her vocals adorns the soundtrack of film by Rabie Rahou - "Return to Nature", composed by Lyubomir Yordanov.
The Italian guitarist and composer Riccardo Prencipe invited Denitza Seraphim in his album "I maestri del Colori", and this event was a beginning of the collaboration between them. The new album "The Moon is a dry Bone" was presented in 2020 and Denitza created emblematic vocals in her wourld stile.
Denitza is a soloist in unique performances "Choirs of Angels" of The Bulgarian A Cappella Choir “Georgi Robev”-newest project by Classical Team Sofia. She interprets and performing orthodox chants and present the vocal art of east orthodox traditions.
Being a truly religious person, Denitza Seraphim originally interprets sacral and Christian chants. She does it with musical passion and a deep feeling, the same with which she sings Spanish flamenco motifs with the guitarist Kiril Pashov, Bulgarian folk variations with the Eriney group, rhythmical and invigorating House compositions in English, again with the participation of Kalin Nikolov.
Her presence on the stage impresses not only with the vocal richness and exquisite melodiousness of her songs, but also with her confident professional improvisation and musical imagination. She is exceptionally artistic and sensual, she does not just sing, she lives her songs with her body and soul, she exalts and dances with her elegant figure and exotic emanation. All about her is devoted to music, which makes her feel in herself and share with others this superior divine harmony and this bright angelic radiance which turn people into spiritual beings. Denitza Seraphimova believes in this and sings about it.