Tsanko Tsankov

Tsanko (Tsalo) Petrov Tsankov was a Bulgarian conductor, professor and rector of the Music Academy in the period 1940–1943 and one of the co-founders of the Society of Bulgarian Composers.

He was born on May 8, 1899 in Oryahovo in the family of Petar Tsankov, he has two brothers – Lyuben and Asen, and one sister Katya. His brother Asen Tsankov was an athlete and musician, father of the musician from the "Sturts" Petar Tsankov. Tsanko and Asen's uncle is the politician and Prime Minister of Bulgaria (1923–1926) Alexander Tsankov, their father's brother.

Tsanko Tsankov graduated in conducting in Vienna, and in composition in Germany.

In the 1920s and 1930s, during the Varna Music Festival, Tsankov conducted concerts and operas at the Varna Municipal Summer Theater: Dimitar Hadzhigeorgiev's Overture "The Fox" and Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 92 in G major "Oxford" in 1926, and the folk opera "Flowers" by maestro Georgi Atanasov in 1930.

In March 1937, together with Veselin Stoyanov, Petko Staynov, Dimitar Nenov, Pancho Vladigerov and Lyubomir Pipkov, he performed a symphony concert in Belgrade, organized by the Society of Bulgarian Composers "Contemporary Music", whose institutional successor is the Union of Bulgarian Composers.

Tsankov was the conductor of the opening of the Bulgaria Concert Hall on October 9, 1937 in Sofia. Under his baton, the Third Piano Concerto and Orchestra by Pancho Vladigerov, the solemn finale of the Balkan Concert Overture by Petko Staynov and the oratorio Messiah by Handel were performed for the first time, as well as Bach's Concerto in C minor for two pianos.

Tsankov was the rector of the Academy of Music from February 18, 1940 to May 15, 1943. He taught orchestral and choral conducting, and among Prof. Tsanko Tsankov's students were the choral conductor and music pedagogue Assen Diamandiev, the violinist Vladi Simeonov, the conductor Lyubomir Romanski, and the violinist, conductor, and composer Vasil Lolov.

In 1940, the group "Narodna sedmorka" with soloists Tanya Nacheva and Tony Enev and conductor Prof. Tsanko Tsankov toured Belgrade, Bratislava and Budapest.

In 1942, Tsankov became the chief conductor of the Vienna Opera. He married the soprano Karin Meyer and there is evidence of their joint concert activity in Austria.

The following data on Tsankov's life are from Ontario, Canada, where he and his wife Karin are on the electoral lists of 1958 and 1963. There is evidence that around 1924 their daughter Dolya, a concert pianist, was born in Sofia, who died in 1999.