Mostly from rural backgrounds in the early years, they were young and poor and became unskilled labourers on roads and in building construction, mines and mills. In fact, there’s not a railway in Canada that hasn’t been worked on by Bulgarians.

But what brought well-known Bulgarian musician Tisho Balinov to Canada is a different kind of story.

At the age of 39 he left his home for love – his wife Mary, who helped him build on his passion for music in a new and unfamiliar land.

“The first time I saw my wife was at the swimming pool of the resort we stayed at in Cyprus,” recalls the son of the late Bulgarian opera singer Kolev Totev Balinov, who’s portrait still hangs in Bulgaria’s National Opera House. “It was love at first sight for me and I wasted no time getting to know her.”

That was 10 years earlier, and Mary, whose family had long since immigrated to Canada, was working for a company at the time that had contracted Tisho’s band as entertainment for a chain of hotels on the island.

“I looked at him and thought, boy, is he full of himself,” Mary says now, laughing.

It didn’t take long, however, for Tisho to charm his way into Mary’s heart. When she decided to return to her family in Canada, he says, “I knew had to follow her or lose her.”

But even though the two were married in a civil ceremony in Bulgaria in February 1993, Mary returned home a bride without a husband and, for the ensuing nine months, she fought hard with Canada’s immigration services to grant Tisho access into the country.

“It was a long process,” she said, noting it was not uncommon for Bulgarians to be denied visas in the early days. Eventually he left for his wife and they were officially married in Canada later that same year.

“It was difficult at first, leaving my family behind and moving to a new country,” he says.

But Mary found a way to keep his love for music alive, eventually leading him to teach from their small basement at home.

Had they not put their heads together, she says Tisho – a man who has earned national acclaim as a world class musician – might still be an assistant plumber today.

Like so many expatriates before him, Tisho picked up whatever jobs he could soon after landing in Canada and settling into the small rural Ontario town where he still resides today.

Bulgarian emigration appears to reflect changes in the homeland. The Balkan Wars, the establishment of communist rule and its fall have all affected Bulgarian emigration to North America.

According to statistics, the most substantial influx of Bulgarians came to Canada before the 1930s.

They were searching for political freedom and economic opportunities. While some did not succeed, those who did started businesses in services and trade and set up several cafeterias, which served as meeting places. Small food shops, bakeries and restaurants were also opened. They became barbers and tailors and dressmakers, they repaired shoes and watches and opened billiard rooms, a tobacco firm, a real estate office, a shipping agency, and, nearby, ran some poultry farms.

Few of the many farmers among them, however, became farmers in Canada. Seeking immediate income, and not having money and time to invest, most of them settled in larger cities.

Not unlike the Bulgarians of yesterday who often lived together under one roof, sharing rent and living expenses, the Bulgarians of today are still very much together, living in communities scattered across the country. These Bulgarian communities have provided the beginnings for ethnic organisations and fellowship societies that helped newcomers, as well as those who had lost jobs or experienced other misfortunes. An estimated 16 000 Bulgarians live in Canada.

“They’re quite a tight knit community,” says Mary.

SS Cyril and Methody, founded in 1910, is Toronto’s first Macedono-Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church. It soon became, and is still often looked upon today as, the central institution for Macedono-Bulgarians in Toronto.

In addition to work, and love, Bulgarians, like 23-year-old Nona Ilieva says, also come just to discover.

“My intention is definitely not to move back to Bulgaria,” says Nona, who’s currently studying tourism at a university in Kamloops, British Columbia.

She says it’s not that she doesn’t love her own country, but its economic conditions are not appealing to a person her age.

Ilieva says she would like to live somewhere where she will, at the very least, get a return on her studying investments through work in her field.

“I don’t know yet if I’m going to stay in Canada after I finish my bachelor’s,” she said. “I haven’t decided yet where I want to live.”

While the transition from Eastern Europe to North America was easy for this young woman, there are a few small things she does miss about Bulgaria, including the country’s lack of smoking regulations. Smokers are hard pressed for rights in Canada, while Eastern Europe is much more laid back, she says.

“We smoke everywhere at home and here you can’t go to a cafe and smoke, which is really annoying, because it kills the whole pleasure of the coffee,” she said laughing. “Especially now that it’s getting cold.”

Ilieva doesn’t know any other Bulgarians in Canada, but she says it’s really amazing how accepting Canadians are toward foreigners.

“That really impressed me,” she said.

Tisho, on the other hand, had a bit of a struggle at first.

In Bulgaria musicians have more credibility than a scientist, according to Mary. Not in Canada, though. The hardest thing for Tisho was explaining to people that he was a musician and having them accept that music was his profession.

Even thought he was a full government scholarship recipient, a graduate of the University of Sofia with a master’s degree in percussion, orchestration and conducting, this once highly sought after musician was invisible in his new country.

Tisho has come a long way since his modest musical beginnings in the basement. In fact, what is now called Tisho’s Music Academy and Pre-School Music Centre has earned the respect of hundreds of students, their parents and musical communities throughout North America. With teachers, two of whom are also from Bulgaria, carrying nothing less than a BA in music, the facility is also highly rated by Julliard School of the Arts in New York.

“I love what I do, and I love my students,” Tisho says. “Most of them don’t know they have it in them and they try to give up too easily, but I won’t allow it.”

And Mary, always encouraging Tisho to follow his dreams, wouldn’t let him fail at what has become the basis for his survival in Canada – his love for music.