Ivo Varbanov - Modest Musorgsky (2024)

Bulgarian pianist Ivo Varbanov became a prominent concert and recording artist in the mid-2010s, both in southeastern Europe and beyond. He is notable for having maintained a parallel career as a top winemaker, in a country with a competitive wine scene, in the midst of his busy concert schedule.

Varbanov was born in Pleven, Bulgaria, into a family of musicians. His mother was a cellist, who held a chair in the San Remo Symphony Orchestra in Italy, and when he was nine his mother took him to that country. He studied with Hungarian teacher Iloncka Deckers and did well enough to win admission to the Royal Academy of Music in London. In England, his teachers were Sulamita Aronowky and Frank Wibaut. Since his graduation in 1998 he has made London his home, but he has maintained strong connections with his native country, giving masterclasses at the National Music School in Sofia. Varbanov first became interested in winemaking in Italy; when his career became established, he invested in Bulgaria's Bratanov vineyard and began producing his own wines.

Varbanov's recording career began in the early 2000s with a recording of piano music by Mussorgsky on Bulgaria's Gega label. He formed the Voland Quartet -- not a typical piano quartet, but a piano-and-percussion ensemble devoted to contemporary music -- and recorded for Gega with that group as well. In the 2010s he moved to the ICSM label, founded by himself and his wife, Fiammetta Tarli. There he released a series of recordings of music by Brahms, Beethoven, and Stravinsky. The year 2017 brought the release of a Varbanov album on Hyperion, devoted to music by Bulgarian composer Dimitar Nenov.

In Bulgaria itself Varbanov is a prominent figure. He is a recipient of the Ivan Vazov Award for the popularization of Bulgarian culture abroad, and in 2011 he was awarded the Silver Lion Award from Bulgaria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has performed in Bulgaria, Italy, the U.K., France, Spain, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany, Holland, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and the U.S.A., giving recitals in top venues including Wigmore Hall (London), Carnegie Hall (New York), and Philharmonic Hall (Saint Petersburg). ~ James Manheim