Bio

Born in the Thrace region of Bulgaria, Milen Slavov began playing piano accordion at the age of seven.  He appeared performing on stages shortly after that.  Later on Milen studied music professionally, and began composing and arranging at 16.  His drive within and the need to express himself through music made him start looking for various opportunities - from touring, teaching, composing and producing to the decision of completely changing his life by moving to another country.

Slavov has lived in America since 1997.  He came with the dream of sharing his inspiration and talents, and with the hope to finding a new life and opportunities for himself and his family.  He has composed, performed, produced, and taught throughout the United States and Canada.  In 2000 the US government awarded Milen permanent residency as an artist of extraordinary ability.

Milen is a master piano accordionist performing music in Bulgarian/Balkan traditional and contemporary styles, world fusion, and chamber music.  He also creates original music for multimedia, and produces audio media for promotional and entrainment purposes.   Milen's work often fuses exotic vocals and sounds, voice talent and musical expressions to enhance a particular mood or emotion.  Milen appears on the "Masters of the Accordion" CD compilation published by ARC Music Productions of Great Britain.

Slavov was a guest teacher at the UCLA Ethnomusicology Department for the 1998/99 academic year.  He has collaborated with Zhivka Papancheva, Joe LoDuca, Tim Rice, Stu Brotman, Yuri Yunakov, Voice of Roma, Grammy-winning vocalist Kremena Stancheva, Kitka, to name a few, and has appeared at the San Antonio International Accordion Festival, Montmagny International Accordion Festival, San Francisco World Music Festival, California Academy of Sciences, Stockton International Folkdance Camp, Cotati Accordion Festival, and the East European Accordion Masters.  Slavov has also appeared on live radio in Oregon, California, Mississippi (including WLOX TV), Wisconsin, Missouri, and Texas.

Now an American citizen, Milen makes his home in Portland, Oregon.  He is the founder of CustomizedMedia, LLC, a company for promotional audio media production and original music for multimedia.

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