Stanislav Hvartchilkov is an extremely talented guitarist, a prize-winner of over 20 national and international classical guitar competitions and a music teacher. I was fortunate enough to interview him and learn about his incredible musical life and what it truly takes to become an accomplished musician.

Stanislav was born in 1984 in the beautiful, capital city of Bulgaria, Sofia. He picked up the guitar early on in his life, as many future skillful musicians often do, at the ‘age of just 5.’ His musical journey began when his father - before taking a business trip - asked him whether he wanted to get a violin or guitar as a present. ‘At that age, I didn't really know much about both instruments but I chose the guitar as I used to see the cool rock stars on the TV holding this instrument rather than the violin. I started on a small 1/2 classical guitar,’ he tells me. In Stanislav’s case, he was already keen on setting his mind on a musical path as a young child. ‘Believe it or not, since I was 6-year-old (just after my first few lessons) I never even thought about becoming anything else but a musician - a guitarist.’

Stanislav went onto to join the Royal Academy of Music, London after finishing school, where he continued to study music and improve his guitar skills. Unlike many others, Stanislav became involved in teaching quickly. ‘I gave my first guitar lesson when I was just a 19-year-old, as a first-year student at the Royal Academy of Music. It was a private lesson. I think that it was quite a natural thing to do - to share some of the knowledge from learning and performing experience that I got by that time. Luckily, I had already quite a CV for a teenager.’

Stanislav then got married at the age of 21 and at 23 graduated the Royal Academy of Music – where he won a Full-Fees Scholarship for his Bachelor of Music course. There he studied classical guitar with Michael Lewin.

It is undoubtedly clear that Stanislav is extremely gifted in what he does. He has taken part in masterclasses with famous musicians and composers, such as John Williams, David Russell, Gerhard Reichenbach, Jonathan Leathwood, Fabio Zanon and John Mills. As well as this, Stanislav has performed in various performances and recitals all over the world in places such as Germany, Greece, Denmark, Bulgaria and Switzerland. ‘I have played in so many different occasions and places, for TV shows, radio programs, for guitar festivals, solo recitals or chamber music concerts, with classical or with electric guitar, for big audiences or small audiences.’

‘I have performed so many different genres of music, classical or modern, arrangements or compositions. Every experience has been useful and of great benefit, every performance has shaped me as a music artist and I have had many nice experiences to remember.’

As I interview Stanislav, I do get the sense that he is no stranger to music awards and has a long, glamorous list of them: something that continues to further embellish and improve his already extraordinary career. ‘I am a prize-winner of over 20 national and international classical guitar competitions, scholarships and awards, amongst them are Julian Bream Prize (London 2004), 1st prize in Andres Segovia Competition for Young Players, (Germany, 2003) 2nd prize in Ivor Mirants Guitar Competition, (London 2004), MBF Music Education Award (2007), Hattori Foundation Scholarship (2006).’ That’s pretty impressive stuff.

However, you would be wrong to think that it is just the silverware and great successes that matter to Stanislav. He is a driven, ambitious musician - who cares greatly about building upon his skills and expertise, as well as setting higher aims for himself to reach. He explains to me, ‘My greatest achievements are always going to be those that I aim for, those that are still in the future, which I project in my dreams and which make me continuously work on my development as a musician. Once I reach a goal I quickly forget about it and think for the next bigger and higher aim.’ The ideology that ‘life is a journey, not a destination’ resonates deeply with Stanislav.

For Stanislav, the process of writing music is important: he, himself, has composed many guitar pieces, for solo and for a group. The great classical musicians, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Chopin are also renowned for their spectacular ability to effortlessly compose beautiful music - each with their individual unique style and flair. However, I want to know about the difficulty required to create your own music. Stanislav provides me with a perceptive response: ‘I believe that to be a composer is a vocation, a gift, and for those that really possess it, is not a difficult thing to practise. However, in order to create something really worth sharing, a musician must study extensively to collect knowledge and develop a good technique for writing. They must also develop a good taste and to find their own original style.’

Hvartchilkov remarks, ‘Here we talk about tens of thousands of hours of work - even if you are genius. That is the only successful "method" and it should go hand in hand with a good ideology, which highest values are the beauty and the harmony.’

So far across his career, Stanislav Hvartchilkov has recorded four CD albums – quite an achievement - , of which two are for solo guitar and two are for guitar and violin duet (such as the "Carnival", 2016). A lot of dedication and effort is required to release a full album in the music industry and there is a huge amount of competition which you are up against.

Stanislav elaborates on his experience of releasing his own music to the rest of the world. ‘The more difficult thing was not to produce an album but was to market it, especially nowadays when there is so much music available for free. There is already a vast ocean of music to listen to - millions of albums. One life is not enough to hear even a small part of the good music that is already been created. And the real artists must ask themselves whether they should really produce an album - do they really have something new to say?’

A challenge for Stanislav is that he must balance work as being a teacher, writing music, spending time with his family and just enjoying his instrument. It is definitely no easy task. He tells me that, ‘to balance the roles of a father, husband, performer, composer and educator is not an easy thing to do, so a musician needs to prioritise those things that have the highest value in their life. At this stage of my life, I have found that the teaching occupation fits my lifestyle best, as I can be around my family, while still producing regularly new music. Unfortunately, I have to sacrifice much of the live performing side of music enjoyment.’

Lastly, I ask Stanislav to share some of his wisdom and give some tips for the next generation of talented guitarists and musicians. ‘It depends on the personal aims and goals, if you approach it as someone who doesn't have ambitions to be a specialist, then you may reach what you want in different ways and without so much time investment. The other road is the never-ending process of improvement and the thousands of hours of work, so you need a lot of patience and the ability to enjoy every step of the process.’

Stanislav sure knows a lot about music and he has emphasized the challenges that are required to overcome if you want to become a successful musician. His life is also a perfect example: showing how much you can achieve – if you are ready to put the work in.