Kiril Tarpov

KIRIL TARPOV made his debut as a choral conductor in 1977 in Vratsa, where he worked with several ensembles as conductor, choirmaster, and assistant to Prof. Samuil Vidas, under whose guidance he was studying at the time. After enrolling at the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in the class of Prof. Dimitar Ruskov, he made his debut as an orchestral conductor and stage director with Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. In 1982, he organized his first festival, “100 Years of Igor Stravinsky.” During his studies, he worked with a number of choral ensembles, as well as with his own chamber orchestra, the Collegium for 20^th ‑ Century Chamber Art. After graduating in 1985, he chose to work in Svilengrad, where he established a choral school comprising several ensembles: a Children’s Choir, a Boys’ Choir, a Junior Choir, a Representative Chamber Children’s Choir, a High School Mixed Choir, as well as specialized choral classes. In 1989, he settled in his hometown of Plovdiv. In 1994, together with prominent Bulgarian figures in the arts and culture—including Prof. PhD Atanas Bozhkov, Prof. Georgi Kanev, Prof. Alexander Tekeliev, and others - he founded the Jeunesse Musicale Foundation. Since 1999, he has lived and worked in New York, where he has developed cultural‑exchange programs between Bulgaria and the United States. He became a member of the American Choral Directors Association and implemented his vision of a Bulgarian-American forum for choral art—the “Festival of Light.” Since 2003, he has organized the “Bulgarian Seasons in New York” Festival of Bulgarian Art and Culture. He founded the Young Soloists of New York Chamber Orchestra, with which he performed at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Space. A year later, the ensemble evolved into the Young Soloists Chamber Society – New York Foundation, which attracts some of the finest young musicians on the East Coast. Distinguished European artists regularly appear as soloists in the concerts and festivals organized by the foundation. From 2008 to 2011, he worked as a teacher and conductor within the U.S. Charter School system. In 2011, he won the competition for Executive Director of the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation. Since 2013, he has been back in the United States, serving as conductor of the orchestra of the performing‑arts and Chinese‑culture company Shen Yun Performing Arts, and from 2014 to 2015 also of the Fei Tian Academy of the Arts. With their orchestra, he conducted performances in some of the most prestigious venues in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In September 2016, he returned to Bulgaria, to Svilengrad, where he revived and now leads the Svilengrad Choir School as its artistic director and chief conductor. Kiril Tarpov, together with the Children’s Choir he directs and with other children’s choirs and their conductors, is among the founders of the Children’s Choir of Bulgaria. In 2018 and again in 2021, he was elected to its Board of Directors.