Ivan Andonov

Ivan Andonov holds a university degree in music education with a specialization in classical guitar. He has also completed courses in rhythm with Prof. Dobri Paliev and conducting with Prof. Kiril Stefanov, and holds a master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Protection.

He studied guitar with some of Bulgaria’s most renowned teachers, including L. Panayotov, D. Doychinov, Prof. P. Panayotov and Stefan Velkov.

Since 1990, he has taught classical guitar at the Bratstvo Community Centre in Kyustendil, and since 2005 he has also served as its Chair. He is a manager, conductor, artistic director and guitar teacher, and founded one of Bulgaria’s first guitar orchestras, the Kyustendil Guitar Orchestra. His students have won awards at numerous national and international competitions and festivals, while the orchestra under his direction has received many prestigious distinctions in Bulgaria and abroad.

He has chaired and served on the juries of numerous festivals and competitions in Bulgaria, Greece, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Serbia, North Macedonia and elsewhere.

Ivan Andonov is artistic director and founder of the Kyustendil International Classical Guitar Competition, the International Chamber Music Academy, the Pautalia International Folklore Competition, the Sing, Heart International Popular Song Competition, the Binyo Ivanov National Poetry Competition and the National Conference of Guitarists in Bulgaria.

He is a member of the Board of the Union of Bulgarian Community Centres and its regional representative for Kyustendil Province.

Under Ivan Andonov’s leadership, the Bratstvo 1869 Community Centre has in recent years completed more than 50 independent and partnership-based creative projects funded through various donor programmes.

He is a long-serving municipal councillor and served as Chair of the Kyustendil Municipal Council from 2013 to 2016 and from 2021 to 2023.

His distinctions include the Honorary Badge of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria; the Golden Muse Award for contributing to the promotion of Russian culture and art in Bulgaria; the Good Heart Award of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria; the Honorary Badge of the Union of Bulgarian Community Centres; the Golden Age Honorary Badge of the Ministry of Culture; the title Merited Community-Centre Cultural Worker; and many others.