[24] International Prof. Ivan Spassov Competition on Composing

The International Prof. Ivan Spassov Competition on Composing was held 9 times between 1998 and 2022. Its specialty is composition – for choir music and for chamber music. The location is the city of Plovdiv, and the organizer is the Prof. Ivan Spassov Foundation. After one year from his sudden death, the foundation was established in 1997 in memory of professor Ivan Spoassov. And in the next year the foundation organized the first edition competition.

1st edition 1998 Chamber music, Choral music
2nd edition 2001 Choral and solo-vocal instrumental miniature
3rd edition 2004 Chamber-instrumental cycle, Cantata-oratorio
4th edition 2007 Symphonic, Vocal
5th Edition 2010
6th edition 2013 Vocal cycle, Chamber-instrumental work
7th Edition 2016
8th edition 2019
9th edition 2022 Chamber, vocal-instrumental work for up to four performers, Cyclic work keyboard

In memory of Professor IVAN SPASSOV - one of the most outstanding bulgarian musicians - a composer, conductor, teacher amd publicist, on June 2, 1997 a foundation

IVAN SPASSOV (1934 - 1996) is an emblematic name for bulgarian music and national culture. He is one of the innovators who expanded and enriched modern bulgarian art.
During the 60s, having the enthusiasm and bravery of his youth he discovered the way to the new music. Deeply impressed by the great opportunities of the modern composition techniques he was a firm believer that this was his way in music. In the 70s he proved his style and expression and mastered his place in the music life.The expressions of that presence are numerous - the compositions, recordings, concerts, books and interviews, the followers, who present his true nature as a composer, conductor, teacher, citizen and human being.
Ivan Spassov's music is Vocation, Destiny and Life. It reflects his aspiration to the Transcendental - Soul, Immortality, Eternity. Intuitively and unconsciously at the beginning and with the full power of his creative genius later, he strove for the infinite expression of the universal human spirit. This is reflected in the perfect world of his music - one of harmony and beauty, seemingly still and calm, but luminous in suffering and passion in essence.