Bulgarian born clarinetist Ivan Ivanov studied at the Sofia State Academy of Music "Pancho Vladigerov" and finished his bachelor's degree with distinctions. In 2004 Mr. Ivanov became a permanent member of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and worked with such conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Jean Bernard Pommier, Rossen Milanov, Shungo Moriyama, Heinz Hellberg, and others. In addition to his full-time employment at the National Orchestra he collaborated with Radio Sofia, New Symphony Orchestra, Classic FM Radio, and National Opera as an orchestral player he has toured France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, Japan, and more.

Ivanov earned his master's degree of clarinet performance at Carnegie Mellon University from the studio of Michael Rusinek, principal clarinet of the Pittsburgh Symphony and his Doctor of Musical Arts at UNLV from the studio of Marina Sturm. He also studied with Ricardo Morales, principal clarinet of the Philadelphia Orchestra. At the Carnegie Mellon University Ivanov collaborated with the famous surrealist composer Leonardo Balada and recorded his music for clarinet in a CD called Leonardo Balada Works for Clarinet. That collaboration inspired Ivanov to research surrealism in depth and write his book Leonardo Balada and Surrealism in Music. Ivanov has numerous recordings also for the Bulgarian National Radio archive and Bulgarian Television, many of which have been broadcast. Ivanov is substitute player with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony and serves as postdoc scholar at UNLV.