Ivo Varbanov

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, international concert schedule. Since his graduation in 1998 he has made London his home, but he has maintained strong connections with his native country. Varbanov's recording career began in the early 2000s with a recording of piano music by Mussorgsky on Bulgaria's Gega label. In the 2010s he moved to the ICSM label. The year 2017 brought the release of a Varbanov album on Hyperion, devoted to music by Bulgarian composer Dimitar Nenov. ~ James Manheim