Ivo Varbanov is a leading figure of Bulgarian music and culture abroad. After a forced hiatus from performing between 2009 to 2012 due to leukaemia he has returned to the stage with impressive performances at the Royal Festival Hall, King’s Place, Cadogan Hall, and the Bulgaria Concert Hall. He is a recipient of the Ivan Vazov Award for the popularization of Bulgarian Culture abroad, and in 2011 he also received the Silver Lion Award.

Ivo started to play the piano at the age of six in his home town with Eleonora Karamisheva (who was one of the last pupils of Dimitar Nenov). After emigrating to Italy with his mother (a professional cellist) at the age of nine, he continued his studies with Riccardo Bertazzolo and in Milan with the Hungarian pianist Ilonka Deckers, who left an indelible mark on his personal, musical, and pianistic development. After his graduation at the age of twenty, he came to England to work with Sulamita Aronovsky at the Royal Northern College of Music and with Frank Wibaut at the Royal Academy of Music, completing his postgraduate studies in 1998 (on a Rotary Foundation Scholarship). He also studied privately with Dennis Lee and was inspired in masterclasses by Alexander Lonquich, Barry Douglas, and Lev Naumov.

He has toured extensively the United Kingdom, Europe and the USA and his performances have been broadcast on national radio and television around the world. His partners in chamber music concerts include his wife Fiammetta Tarli and Konstantin Lifschitz (two pianos/four hands), the violinist Ofer Falk, cellists László Fenyő, Jozef Lupták and Hillel Zori, the Allegri Quartet, and the Voland Quartet (a two pianos and percussion ensemble founded in 2001 with Michał Drewnowski).

In 2014 with his wife Ivo started an independent audiophile record label, ICSM Records (Independent Creative Sound and Music Records). This is his debut recording for Hyperion.