Kiril Tarpov began studying conducting at the age of 16 as a student of orchestral conductor Georgi Dimitrov and Professor Samuil Vidas. His debut as a choral conductor took place in 1977 in Vratsa, where he worked as an assistant to Prof. Vidas and conductor of secondary school and children’s choirs. In 1979, he began studying at the Bulgarian State Conservatory in the class of Professor Dimitar Ruskov.
“An exceptionally successful debut…” and “A ray of sunshine in the gray capital season…” were among the media reviews following Kiril Tarpov’s debut as conductor and stage director of The Soldier’s Tale by Igor Stravinsky on April 20, 1981, in Sofia — the first performance of the original version in Bulgaria. One year later, Tarpov organized his first festival, “100 Years of Igor Stravinsky.”
From 1985, he worked in Svilengrad, where he established a choral school with choir classes from first through eighth grade, as well as a large children’s choir. He also worked with the mixed municipal choir, thus completing the full cycle of the choral school structure. In 1989, he moved to his hometown of Plovdiv.
In 1994, together with some of the most distinguished members of the Bulgarian musical community, he co-founded the Musical Youth Foundation, aiming to continue the work initiated by the great Bulgarian pianist Professor Bogomil Starshenov. Between 1981 and 1995, Kiril Tarpov organized and conducted some of the most prominent chamber orchestras of the period, including the Collegium for 20th Century Chamber Art, Collegium Musicum Plovdiv, the “Musical Youth” Chamber Orchestra, and others. He was also the first conductor to premiere a long list of works by Bulgarian composers, as well as Bulgarian premieres of many twentieth-century classical masterpieces.
In 2001, with sponsorship from JP Morgan Chase, Kiril Tarpov became a member of the American Choral Directors Association and realized his vision for the Bulgarian-American arts forum “Festival of Light,” where choirs from various U.S. universities performed together with Bulgarian choirs in Bulgaria.
In 2011, he returned to Bulgaria and, after winning a competition, became Executive Director of the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation — the first and only director appointed through an open competition. Due to disagreements regarding the organizational structure, he resigned and returned to the United States.
During the 2014–2015 concert seasons, Tarpov won a competition to become conductor of the orchestra of Shen Yun Performing Arts, conducting performances in Canada, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, France, and other countries.
Since September 2016, he has returned to Bulgaria to restore and conduct the Svilengrad Choral School.
Kiril Tarpov, together with the Children’s Choir under his direction and alongside other children’s choirs and their conductors, is among the founders of the Children’s Choir of Bulgaria.
In 2018 and 2021, he was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Choral Union.
He is the recipient of the award for active creative achievement in the national survey “Musician of the Year 2021” by Bulgarian National Radio.