Ivan Kovachev grew up in the folk traditions of his family and native Bulgaria. He is a composer, arranger, performer, teacher, studio engineer and software developer. Born in Gabrovo in the middle region of Bulgaria, he began playing gadulka and studying the old national traditions at a very early age. He graduated from the Philip Kutev Music School in Kotel; after that took his degree in the Academy of Music and Dance Art in Plovdiv.
Ivan is a skilled master of violin, gadulka, tamboura and bouzouki, as well many other instruments.
Kovachev began his performing career in 1981, when he won his
first prize in the folklore festival in Koprivshtitza. Until the end of the 1980's, he took part in many competitions and festivals where he won several gold awards for the masterful performance of different folk styles, as well as he was invited to create and perform music for the famous folklore movie "The Fire" - winning several international movie awards.
During the 90's, together with making choir and orchestral music compositions and arrangements, Kovachev put his effort into the research of traditional music and customs, as well as teaching students from Bulgaria and all over the world.
This was the time when Ivan could satisfy his passion - learning other Balkan
and Middle East styles.
Because of the continuous evolution of the Bulgarian folk music during the last 10 years, many recording companies needed skilled arrangers and composers. That's why Ivan had to work as studio performer, arranger and producer for many of them, and founded his own recording studio named Folk Factory.
Lately, Ivan works as a studio engineer and software maker for several world-famous companies, and he develops his own software utilities and tools. An example of this is his very first virtual teacher called "Folk Factory - self teaching tools", an exciting tool including many detailed video demonstrations, full navigation controls, half tempo control, lots of scores and audio libraries...
