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The Academic folk choir of the Academy of music, dance and fine arts - Plovdiv is the only student choir in Bulgaria. It was founded in 1972 with the creation of the specialty "Folklore instruments and singing".

The choir has a wide diapason in its style palette of repertoire - beginning with the original folk song from the different regions of the country and polyphonic arrangements, original compositions with avant-garde expression techniques (aleatory and sonority), ancient orthodox songs, etc.

With its high artistic level of performing the choir is equal in technique and artistry to a number of professional choirs. The choir performs songs, based on folklore and overcomes vocal, technical and interpretational difficulties.

Many works have been written and dedicated to the Academic folk choir by authors like Assen Diamandiev, Stefan Mutafchiev, Ivan Spassov, Nikolai Stoikov, Kiril Stefanov, Nikolai Kaufman, Krassimir Kyurkchijski, Anastas Naumov, etc. Their works have often had their debut performances done by the choir. Thanks to them, the choir has become the founder of the phenomenon called 'new folklore influence'. It is characterized with the intonations and metro-rhythms that are integrated in the works they perform, as well as with the highly professional use of contemporary interpretative methods.

The choir has participated in numerous concerts in Bulgaria as well as internationally, yielding numerous acknowledgements and prizes. Some of the choir's more remarkable international awards are those from the 'Bidgosh Musical Impressions' festival in Poland, 'Gurten festival' - Switzerland, Flanders Festival - Belgium, 'Europalia' - Belgium, as well as the Bulgarian collection of 'New Bulgarian Music', etc.

The international critics have acclaimed the choir's performances as perfectly epitomizing the "mystery of the Bulgarian Voices", 'superseding the common idea about the Bulgarian national song', and original and enchanting 'with their beauty, precision, artistic freedom and stable intonation'.

In the choir's discography there two albums - in 2004 the self-titled 'Academic folk choir' was published, followed by the CD 'Bulgarian folklore masterpieces' with compositions by academician Krasimir Kyurkchiyski.