Toncho Roussev

Toncho Roussev is the "hit-master" of the Bulgarian pop music. Immensely productive, with an acute ear for the melodic ballad, he ranks among the leading composers on the contemporary Bulgarian music scene.

During the last 40 years hundreds of his songs have been performed by the most popular Bulgarian singers, such as Lily Ivanova, Vassil Naidenov, Vesselin Marinov and many others.

Some of his songs have been successfully performed by foreign artists such as Philip Kirkorov (who actually started his career performing songs by Toncho Roussev), Dagmar Frederic, Fara Maria and others.

Most of his songs were based on lyrics written by some of the most distinguished Bulgarian poets such as Damian Damianov, Pavel Matev, Petya Dubarova, Vanyo Valchev, Evtim Evtimov.

Toncho Roussev graduated from the Bulgarian Music Academy with trumpet as his major subject in Professor Karparov's class in 1955.

He worked with the symphonic orchestras in Bourgas and Pernik and the orchestra of the Sofia opera. He is one of the people who established the orchestra of the Satiric theatre in 1957, and, in 1960, Toncho became a part of the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio.

Together with Dimitar Ganev, Moris Aladjem and others, established the Balkanton orchestra in 1962, in which he played until 1972.

During the years 1980-1985 Toncho Roussev headed the department of pop music. Member of the Union of the Bulgarian Composers. Author of children's songs, music for the theatre, film music.

Toncho Roussev's songs have been awarded many prizes in various music contests - "Golden Orpheus", "Songs about the sea, Bourgas and its working people", "Melody of the Year", "Pirin Folk" and many others. He also won many international music awards.

His songs have been released in many European countries, the United States and Canada.