Miroslav Ivanov ( bg, Мирослав Иванов) is a Bulgarian guitar player, born on December 26, 1977, in Russe, Bulgaria. He graduated the Music School in

Shumen Shumen ( bg, Шумен, also romanized as ''Shoumen'' or ''Šumen'', ) is the tenth largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and economic capital of Shumen Province. Etymology The city was first mentioned as ''Šimeonis'' in 1153 by t ...

. In his school years he founded his first band DVX and recorded with them his first album. He obtained his Master of Music degree in Guitar at the National Academy of Music "Pantcho Vladigerov" in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

Biography

In 1995, still as a student, he gave rise to the project Bals Band (1995) that became an integral part of the popular TV show “Kak Shte Gi Stignem” with Todor Kolev for two years. In 1998 Miroslav Ivanov won the grand prize of the contest Blues Brothers 2000, organized by the French Cultural Center as part of the official promotion of the movie. In the same year Miroslav Ivanov also founded the well-known Bulgarian

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

band Infinity – where he took on the role of guitarist and composer and released two albums – Happy Man Blues and Kolkoto-Tolkova (As Good as it Gets). Infinity appeared as a regular act at the biggest

festivals in Bulgaria and was a special guest at the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair in 1999. In 2001 Miroslav founded the pop-rock SAFO bаnd and released with the formation his next album Kolelo Ot Sunishta (A Wheel of Dreams). The band was awarded the prestigious prize “Discovery of the Year” by BG Radio in 2003 and “Band the Year” in 2004. The single Pustinna Zemya (Desert Land) topped the chart “Song of the Year” on the

Bulgarian National Radio Bulgarian National Radio ( bg, Българско национално радио, ''Bulgarsko natsionalno radio''; abbreviated to БНР, BNR) is Bulgaria's national radio broadcasting organisation. It operates two national and nine regional cha ...

. During this period SAFO performed at the biggest and most prestigious concerts and festivals in Bulgaria. SAFO produced another album in 2005 – Safo Live. In 2008 Miroslav Ivanov left for Ireland where he joined the award-winning alternative rock band Amoric. As a guitarist and leading composer of Amoric he realised recordings in Dublin's Temple Lane Studios with Grammy-nominated US producer Bruce Sugar. The band recorded another album followed by numerous appearances at festivals in Ireland and

Solfest Solfest is a music and arts festival on the Solway Coast in the North West of England. It is held annually at North Lakes Country Park on the August Bank Holiday weekend. It has grown from a 1,800 capacity event in 2004 to a 10,000 capacity f ...

in the UK. In 2011 Miroslav returned to Bulgaria to proceed working on his own instrumental project Miroslav Ivanov Quartet (also known as Guitar Miro Quartet), focused on

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and world music. As a result the EP Northern Lights came to life. In March 2013 Miroslav released his debut instrumental album Directions. The album was recorded under the independent label Music Clinic Records and features most of the best musicians in Bulgaria – Dimitar Semov, Milen Kukosharov, Radoslav Slavchev, Rossen Vatev, Dimitar Karamfilov, Stoyan Yankoulov, Mihail Yossifov. The album promotion was followed by a club tour by Miroslav Ivanov Quartet in the biggest Bulgarian cities with line-up: Miroslav Ivanov (guitar, vocals), Milen Kukosharov (piano), Dimitar Semov (drums), Radoslav Slavchev (bass)/Dimitar Karamfilov (double bass). From 1997 onwards Miroslav Ivanov proved to be one of the most respected and sought after guitarists with his live and studio collaborations with some of the greatest names on the Bulgarian pop and jazz scene such as Arabel Karayan,

Lili Ivanova ''Lili'' is a 1953 American film released by MGM. It stars Leslie Caron as a touchingly naïve French girl whose emotional relationship with a carnival puppeteer is conducted through the medium of four puppets. The film won the Academy Award for ...

, Vasil Naydenov, Kamelia Todorova, Vassil Petrov, Dynamite Brass Band, Elitza Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov, Beloslava, Todor Kolev,

Stefan Valdobrev Stefan Kostadinov Valdobrev ( bg, Стефан Костадинов Вълдобрев; born 20 May 1970) is a Bulgarian actor, film/theatre composer, singer-songwriter and filmmaker. He received classical training at the National Academy of Thea ...

. Miroslav Ivanov has also performed with German jazz band

De-Phazz De-Phazz is a downtempo jazz ensemble integrating modern turntablism and elements of Soul music, soul, Latin American music, Latin, trip hop and drum and bass into a lounge music sound. De-Phazz is led by Pit Baumgartner, a German producer who ha ...

at their concert in Bulgaria in 2009 with Big Band Brass Association under the direction of maestro Angel Zaberski. Recently the musician took part in the tribute project ABBA R’n’B Acoustic Tribute, once again in collaboration with leading Bulgarian musicians – Radoslav Slavchev (bass), Rossen Vatev (percussion), Rossen Kukosharov (vocals). He recorded guitars for various Bulgarian film projects – the soundtrack of the movie Pansion za Kucheta (Dog Boarding School) (2000), and the TV series Hotel Bulgaria (2004) and Nedadenite (The Ungiven) (2013). In the end of 2013 Miroslav Ivanov released his first independent single “Tsuk” – an experimental blend of pop and avant-garde music. The entire production of the song is his work – he wrote the music, lyrics and arrangement and recorded his vocals on it. From the beginning of 2014 Miroslav Ivanov is actively playing gigs with his

quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

, with funk band Southwick and cross-over string formation Hypnotic. He is as well realizing studio recordings with alternative power-rock trio Saint Electrics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanov, Miroslav 1975 births Living people Bulgarian guitarists People from Ruse, Bulgaria 21st-century guitarists