Dr. Vasil Cvetkov

Lecturer of Theory

Pottle 109
vcvetkov@southeastern.edu

Vasil Cvetkov was born in Burgas, Bulgaria. He started playing piano at the age of 5 and holds a PhD in Music Theory, with a minor in Jazz Study, from Louisiana State University.

He earned his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Music Education from the Academy of Music and Dance in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and also has a Master's Degree in Music from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. His major instrument is the piano.

Cvetkov has performed in ensembles, orchestras, and bands in Europe and the US, including the 2011 Southeastern Alumni Jazz Ensemble, Southeastern Louisiana University Jazz Band, “Magnolia Band” in Baton Rouge, Jazz Quartet “Horus,” and the “Hot Sands” Band in Burgas, Bulgaria. He has also performed in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. He has recorded dozens of live concerts for Bulgarian National Television and other TV stations in his home country.

Composer as well as performer, Cvetkov has created and arranged many pieces for solo instruments and ensembles. His styles range from classical to jazz, pop, and rock. Cvetkov's academic interests in music theory are as wide as the range of his compositions. His dissertation, "The Chromatic Fantasy Sonata" by Dave Brubeck, examines the interplay of classical and jazz forms in a work by a famous American jazz pianist and composer. Cvetkov has delivered papers on Brubeck at the "Frederick Loewe Symposium in American Music-Gunther Schuller" (2011), the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic 2011 Meeting at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., the First Biennial LSU Music Colloquium, Baton Rouge (2011), and The Seventh Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900 and the international conference of the Society for Music Analysis at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts(UK) in July 2011. He also has presented papers at the Musicology/Theory Colloquium (NOMTC) Annual Meeting at Loyola University in New Orleans (2010) and the conference of South Central Society for Music Theory (2007). His Master's theses are entitled "Form and Model in the Piano Improvisation of Bill Evans" and "The Use of Jazz and Pop Music in Piano Pedagogy." His article,"The Vocal in Jazz Music," appeared in Issue 1 of Izgrev magazine.

Cvetkov's extensive teaching experience includes piano and music theory on the high school and college level in both Europe and the US. His pedagogical interests include Ear Training, Harmony, Counterpoint, and Musical Forms. Cvetkov's teaching method is a fusion of ideas and styles from both sides of the Atlantic. He incorporates classical, pop, and jazz music into his lessons seeking to leverage his rich experience as an entertainer towards the effective music instruction of young people as well as adults.