Kosta Kolev is a Bulgarian composer, conductor and instrumentalist.

He was born on June 2, 1921 in the village of Korten, Novozagorsko, in the family of Kolyo and Rusa Kostovi. He showed musical talents early - his first appearances were in front of the villagers at traditional folk celebrations and entertainments together with the older folk musicians. He first learned to play his father's harmonium and later the accordion. Growing up under the care and love of his family, Kosta Kolev inherited an exceptional musical talent, kind character, diligence and great love for Bulgarian folk music.

He received musical knowledge and theoretical training only during his high school education in the town of Nova Zagora from his music teacher Banko Bankov. Since then, Kosta Kolev has tried to compose, to form groups of like-minded people and musicians with whom he plays popular classical plays, fun and dance music and especially the typical for the region Thracian music.

World War II found him in the barracks while serving in the army, and this was the reason why he was transferred to the front, where he remained for another year. Fortunately, in December 1944 he returned alive and well and soon settled in Sofia, studied dentistry, worked in a studio for repairing musical instruments, and from 1949 he worked at Radio Sofia as the leader of various instrumental groups for folk. music.

Kosta Kolev's creative skills were soon appreciated by Professor Parashkev Hadjiev and at his insistence he began training at the Academy of Music. He was taught by prominent professors and active artists and musicians at that time - Parashkev Hadjiev, Georgi Dimitrov, Veselin Stoyanov and others. This is a remarkable period in the development of Kosta Kolev - active concert and recording activities, participation in the first national fairs of folk art and his work with talented folk singers and musicians from all over the country.

Kosta Kolev has made an invaluable contribution as a composer of folk music, as a conductor of the folk music orchestra of Radio Sofia and for the development of Bulgarian musical culture. Among the works of Kosta Kolev stand out the numerous suites for folk orchestra, songs for folk choir, choir and orchestra, music and dance performances and thousands of arrangements for soloists and orchestra with unfading significance. An important moment in the work of the composer Kosta Kolev is the care for the musical heritage of Bulgaria and the responsibility for the purity of the stylistic characteristics of the individual regions and until the end of his life he searches for and records unique song and instrumental samples.

A brilliant orchestrator and arranger, Kosta Kolev places the instruments in their most convenient register to sound with natural color and warmth of timbre like a precisely tailored garment. The sanctity with which he reaches for every song and folk melody has given him a well-deserved place as a classic in folk music. Kosta Kolev created fully for the rest of his life. He died at the age of 89 in Sofia on August 3, 2010.