Peter Slavov is a New York-based bassist, composer, session musician, arranger, and educator. Since he started performing professionally in the mid-1990s, Peter has performed at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals in more than 40 countries on 5 continents.
Born to the family of legendary Bulgarian drummer Peter Slavov Sr., Peter (sometimes credited as Petar) has been playing bass since the age of twelve.
While studying classical music at the Pipkov Music School in Sofia, Bulgaria, Peter discovered American jazz and soon after became the busiest bassist on the scene in Bulgaria, playing with the country’s finest musicians and touring around Europe.
In 1998 Peter received a scholarship from Boston’s famed Berklee College of Music, and in 1999 moved to Boston to attend Berklee. In 2001, he was awarded the Berklee Bass Department’s John Neves Memorial Scholarship Award for Outstanding Musicianship, as well as a full scholarship.
Since graduating from Berklee in 2002, Peter Slavov has performed and recorded with world-renowned artists such as Joe Lovano, Quincy Jones, George Garzone, Danilo Perez, Chucho Valdes, Kevin Mahogany, Simon Shaheen, Elio Villafranca, Emily Bear and many others. Peter is a member of Grammy award-winning saxophonist Joe Lovano’s Classic Quartet and Lovano’s Us Five band. In 2012, Us Five received the Award for Best Small Group by the Jazz Journalists Association of America.
Peter Slavov is also featured on the most recent album by Joe Lovano and Us Five, "Cross Culture", which was released on the historic Blue Note label.
Peter has performed with legendary producer/arranger/composer Quincy Jones’ Global Gumbo Project. Peter has also recorded for Jones. He is featured on Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez’ critically-acclaimed, GRAMMY®-nominated album The Invasion Parade(released in 2014), which Quincy Jones produced.
In May 2022, Peter was the featured performer, composer and arranger with the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio, directed by Antoni Donchev.
In August 2021, Peter received a City Arts Corps grant from the The New York Foundation For the Arts/New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Peter is currently teaching bass at Berklee College of Music.
In the spring of 2013, Peter was commissioned to write a piece for jazz trio and a string orchestra. The piece was performed in July 2013 at the Festival Complex in Varna, Bulgaria as part of the Varna Summer Music Festival.
Little Stories
Peter Slavov’s debut album Little Stories, released in 2019, is a concept album where each composition is accompanied by a short printed one-paragraph story that explains the inspiration behind the music and the meaning of the title. The album is an anthology of sorts; a collection of music written in the past 20 years.
Little Stories was recorded by a core band enhanced on different tracks with strings, voice, acoustic guitar and bass clarinet. All the music was written and arranged by Peter Slavov and is a collection of material written over the past 20 years. The cover art was painted by acclaimed Chilean artist Maria Jose Concha and was inspired by the music.
“Portrayed in the sonic medium, this collection of deeply personal stories offers audiences a glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary musician.” - Bass Magazine
Peter has performed at some of the most prestigious festivals around the world, including:
The Monterey Jazz Festival, The Detroit Jazz Festival, Festival de Jazz de Montreal, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, The North Sea Jazz Festival (Holland), Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy), Jazz a Juan(France), Paris Jazz Festival, Dubai Jazz Festival (UAE), Istanbul Jazz Festival (Turkey), The Israel Festival (Israel), Festival Chile Jazz, and many more.
Peter has also performed at numerous legendary performance venues, such as:
Jazz at Lincoln Center (New York City), Town Hall(NYC),The Village Vanguard (New York City),Birdland (New York City), Blue Note (New York, Milan, Tokyo, Beijing and Nagoya), The Fox Theater (Atlanta), Severance Hall (Cleveland), MGM Grand (Las Vegas),The Detroit Institute of Art (Detroit), Olympia Hall (Paris), Massey Hall (Toronto),The Jerusalem Theater (Jerusalem), Bulgaria Hall (Sofia), Chang Kai Shek National Theater (Taipei),Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City),The Jazz Standard (New York City),Yoshi’s (San Francisco), Minton’s Playhouse (New York City), Dakota (Minneapolis), New Morning (Paris), La Cigale (Paris), Duc Des Lombards (Paris), Zappa (Tel Aviv) and countless more.
He has been featured on Fox 5 New York, WBGO - NPR Newark, WGBH-NPR Boston, CBC(Canada), PBS, TF1(France), Mezzo(France), Radio France Internationale, WERS - Boston, Jazz FM(Bulgaria), BR(Germany), Azteca TV(Mexico),IMER (Mexico), Bulgarian National Television and the Bulgarian National Radio.