Sevdalin Stefanov

He began playing the guitar in 1981 and subsequently studied with Trendafil Mihaylov in Kavarna from 1983 to 1985, Valentin Valchev in Dobrich from 1985 to 1990, and Lyuben Haralambiev in Varna from 1990 to 1992.

From 1992 to 1996, he studied at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv in the guitar class of Georgi Tsonev. He later specialized at the same academy in 2001 and 2012. As a student, he was active in various musical ensembles. In 1994, he founded a guitar quartet that successfully performed throughout Bulgaria. At his request, Associate Professor Ivan Dimov composed Concertino for Guitar Quartet and Orchestra. The work was premiered in 1997 on Bulgarian National Television to mark the composer’s 70th anniversary.

From 1996 to 2000, Sevdalin Stefanov taught guitar at the Dobri Hristov National School of Arts, the Otets Paisiy Community Centre and the Orbita Youth Centre in Varna.

Between 2000 and 2005, he worked as a musician in Greenland, Monaco, France, Italy, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, the Caribbean and elsewhere.

Since 2005, he has taught guitar at the Dobri Hristov National School of Arts in Varna, and from 2010 to 2020 he headed the guitar department. He serves on juries at national and international guitar festivals and competitions.

In 2010, he edited and published Romance of Memory, a collection of guitar pieces by Lyuben Haralambiev marking the distinguished teacher’s 80th anniversary. His subsequent publications include Ivan Dimov’s Concertino for Guitar Quartet and Orchestra (2011); The Classical Guitar in Varna, first and second editions (2012); Guitar Pieces by Georgi Harizanov (2013); Musical Moods, guitar pieces by Nikolay Yordanov (2015); the third revised edition of The Classical Guitar in Varna and Part III of the method Let Us Play the Guitar, co-authored with Milena Valcheva (2017); Favourite Studies and Caprices for Guitar (2020); and Scales, Chords, Cadences and Sequences for Guitar (2023).

Sevdalin Stefanov is Chair of the Friends of the Classical Guitar Association and one of the organizers of the traditional Days of the Classical Guitar music festival in Varna.