Simeon Pironkoff graduated from the State Academy of Music where he studied composition with Prof. Parashkev Hadjiev and conducting with Prof. Georgi Dimitrov. He studied music until 1952 and continued working as conductor and composer. Since 1962 he has been a free-lance composer. He is Associate professor in the Higher Institute of Theatrical and Film Arts and was Deputy President of the Union of Bulgarian Composers. Since 1994 he is President of the Bulgarian ISCM Section. One of the most representative figures of contemporary Bulgarian music, Pironkoff is the 1985 recipient of the Gottfried von Herder international Prize in Vienna. In the course of his artistic development, Pironkoff underwent an evolution that was rather close to the evolution of the avant-garde, although without over-experimenting and going to the extremes. The qualities of his musical thinking are in the clarity of the form (concise or extended), and in the natural depth and sincerity of expression close to a philosophical reflection.