Milen Kirov was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in a family of musicians. His father Todor Kirov is a well known and respected Bulgarian ethnomusicologist, composer and scholar, his mother Vili Kirov is a teacher and performer of Bulgarian Folk music, and his brother Plamen Kirov is a drummer in Los Angeles, California. Milen started playing the piano at the age of four, and a few years later he was admitted in the High School of Music "D. Petkov" – Plovdiv. He also attended the Plovdiv Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts where he studied piano with Professor George Petrov, student of Olivier Messiaen, and with Professor George Kanev, graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1998 Milen was offered to continue his studies on a full scholarship at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he studied piano performance with Carol Stivers, jazz performance with Stefan Karlsson and composition with Virko Baley. Milen holds a Bachelors Degree in Piano Performance from California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with Vicki Ray and David Rosenboom, a Masters of Music in Composition from California State University, Northridge, where he studied with Dr. Liviu Marinescu, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the one-of-a-kind cutting edge Performer-Composer Program at California Institute of the Arts.
Milen Kirov has won awards from the Bulgarian National Radio Composition Competition for new work dedicated to the 250th Anniversary of G.F. Handel's death; Bulgarian National Competition "Sv. Obretenov" – Provadia; MTNA Competition – Nevada; Reno Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Liberace Scholarship Competition, J. Huntzinger Concerto Competition, and has received a grant from the American Music Center. He has also been awarded the Devos Fine Arts Scholarship, and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Scholarship among others, and has performed throughout Bulgaria, Greece, France, Canada, and the United States. Milen has written and performed music for numerous films, among them "Human Error" – a Robert M. Young film, official selection of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival; "A Cigar At the Beach" – an award winning film by Triskalion Entertainment, and "Racket", a film by Michael Baez.
Milen Kirov has released 3 albums on his own Ruino Vino Records label – "broken" featuring his compositions for solo Fender Rhodes piano, a self-titled album by his own Balkan-jazz band Bulgarian Moonshine Co., and "Peasant Funk" – the debut album of his latest project – Orkestar MÉZÉ, an 11-piece Balkan funk ensemble. His compositions and performances have been featured on over 20 radio and TV stations all over the US, England, Scotland, Germany, and Bulgaria as well as on numerous recordings. Milen has appeared as a guest soloist with UNLV Symphony Orchestra, and has led composition seminars at University of California, Santa Cruz and world music seminars at California Institute of the Arts, Cal State Northridge, and University of California, Santa Barbara. He has also worked with Long Beach Opera, the School of Music at CalArts, Department of Music and Department of Dance at UNLV and the World Arts and Cultures Department at UCLA. Some of the artists he has performed and/or recorded with include Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction), Miroslav Tadic, Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, AWB), Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa), Doug Lunn, John Bergamo, Eric Barber, Vicki Ray, Stefan Karlsson, Arthur Jarvinen, Money Mark (Beastie Boys), Bill Churchville (Tower of Power), "A.i.", and James Gadson (Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, Beck) among others.
Currently Milen Kirov serves as an adjunct faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Chapman University and the Department of Music at California State University, Northridge. He also teaches musicianship skills, piano, composition, and Balkan Brass jazz band at California Institute of the Arts. Milen continues to write and perform extensively both as a solo artist and as a leader of his 11-piece Balkan funk band Orkestar MÉZÉ.
