Christov, Dobri

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(b Varna, Dec 14, 1875; d Sofia, Jan 23, 1941). Eminent Bulgarian composer, music theorist, conductor, and pedagogue who left an immense creative heritage in music as well as in musicology. After completing his secondary education he became a primary school teacher in his native town Varna (1894). Co-founder and conductor of the Musical Society Gusla (1899), he was at the same time conductor of the choir at the church Sveto Uspenie Bogorodichno [The Assumption]. During the years 1900–03 he studied composition in the class of Antonin Dvořák at the Prague Conservatory. In 1907 he won a first prize in the contest dedicated to the opening of the National Theatre in Sofia, with the Festive Overture Ivailo. From that year on he set up in Sofia as a secondary school teacher, as a teacher in the Private Music School, a director of the State School of Music (...