Ivo Papasov

Ivo Papazov - biographyIvo Papazov was born in Kurdzhali on the 16 February 1952. He was only nine years old when he first got involved with music. At first he learned the accordion, but in line with his family tradition he moved on to the clarinet. His family came from Dedeagach, then part of it moved to Dzhebel and from there to Kurdzhali. His great grandfathers were zurna players, but his grandfather became the first clarinet player in Thrace. His father and his musician colleagues were so impressed by the mastery and skills which Ivo showed as he taught himself the clarinet that they sent him to a children’s music school with the clarinetist Peter Filipov. But his real school turned out to be the multitude of weddings where Ivo went with his father, and where he learned to master the instrument and develop his virtuoso technique. At the same time, he studied at the school of construction in Kurdzhali. In 1974, when he was only 22 years old, he formed his first band. Starting with a purely traditional repertoire, it gradually incorporated more and more improvisation, combining a diversity of styles. For a short time Ivo Papazov became the uncrowned King of wedding music. Because of his origins and his popularity among the Turkish population in Bulgaria, in 1982 he was arrested, beaten and held in custody. He was sentenced to work in a labour camp. Not long after that, Papazov became a celebrity among Bulgarian students and intellectuals who found in his music the freedom which was lacking in official Bulgarian culture. During a visit to his native country on the recommendation of Ognyan Videv, Milcho Leviev met Papazov. Joe Boyd was with him. This meeting opened Ivo Papazov’s way to the big stage. His popularity led to the recording of two albums: "Orpheus Ascending" (1989) and "Balkanology" (1991), released by Hannibal Records and produced by Joe Boyd himself. Subsequently there were tours in the USA, Canada and Britain. In 1989 he turned down an offer to emigrate to Canada. After the political changes in Bulgaria, Ivo Papazov was free to concentrate on the whole world and for more than ten years he worked on joint projects with stars from the global music scene including Johnny Griffin, Hector Zazou, Okay Temiz, Glen Velez, Kepa Junkera, Arild Andersen, Kalman Balogh, Iva Bitova, Sergei Starostin and many others. He played at many world stages and festivals. The world press – newspapers of the calibre of The Guardian, the Washington Post and New York Times wrote about him in superlative terms. World-famous musicians like David Sanbourn and Frank Zappa and well-known and respected connoisseurs spoke flatteringly of his music. In 2001, after a long break, he began to work on his latest independent album called Fairground. At the end of 2003, the album was released by the Bulgarian label Kuker Music, and in 2004 was nominated for the BBC Radio 3 world music prize "Planet". After a contentious global vote Ivo Papazov, nicknamed Ibryama, won the BBC Radio 3 World Music Audience Award 2005. Joe Boyd handed him the prize at an official ceremony in Newcastle in March 2005. Back in Bulgaria, Ivo Papazov went on to receive numerous prizes including the special BG radio prize for his role as the world ambassador of Bulgarian music, the Golden Award of the Atlantic Club and the great Inspiration prize of the 10th anniversary of the House of the Arts. On the 4th October 2005 Ivo Papazov (Ibryama) became the 117th honorary citizen of Stara Zagora since the title was established in 1963. The newspaper Starozagorski novini motivated his nomination as follows: “Stara Zagora is fortunate that Ibryama, a world citizen for the last twenty years, is a Stara Zagoran. His phenomenal talent united ethnic groups, parties, religions and peoples like no other. Ivo Papazov put Bulgaria and Stara Zagora on the map of the world. He is our best ambassador for a peaceful and civilized world.”His music today is a source of everything we all love: a tender, lyrical and crazily exuberant weave of colorful sounds and beautiful melodies, improvisations and ornamentation – a real embroidery of rhythms inspired by love, which open our hearts to what we cherish the most.