Ivaylo Hristov

Edition Elm founder and manager Ivaylo Hristov studied both conducting and trombone in the National Music Academy in Sofia during 1980s. He built his musical career as a trombonist with Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra until his recent retirement, and also played with many other orchestras in Bulgaria for both concerts and recording sessions. As a chamber musician he founded the Sofia Philharmonic Trombones quartet in 1987, and AKWI trombone quartet in 1996, and also performed with Sofia brass quintet and other diverse groups. For these ensembles he has made numerous transcriptions and arrangements, focussing on pretty well known music that do not exist otherwise in brass player's repertoire, out of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Léo Delibes, Johann Strauß Sohn, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Giacomo Puccini, Scott Joplin, Isaac Albèniz, Paul Dukas, Manuel de Falla, Béla Bartók, George Gershwin, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Robert Aldridge among others. His arrangements for trombone ensembles were also published by Kagarice Brass Editions, now part of Ensemble Publications' catalogue.

He is also the editor-in-chief of all titles in the Edition Elm catalog, including the works for solo piano and piano duo by Pantcho Vladigueroff, the String Quartet by Milcho Leviev, the books The Rungs to the Temple by Dimitrina Tabakova and Essays by Stefan Lazarov. Ivaylo Hristov is also the co-author of the film about Vladigueroff, created on archival materials stored at the Pancho Vladigerov House Museum in Sofia, which is included in the 2019 CD In Bright Colors.