Bulgarian pianist Martin Ivanov was born into a family of musicians and began playing the piano at the age of four. He studied with his mother, who remained his teacher until he graduated from the National School of Arts in his hometown of Ruse in 2009.
 

During his school years, Martin participated in more than 50 piano competitions across Europe, winning over 45 prizes. In 2006, he was noticed by the director of Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest and was invited to perform on concert tours in France, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece, and Romania. During this period, he regularly performed piano concertos with the Sibiu Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania. In 2008, he received the prestigious "Ruse 21st Century" Award, the highest honor presented by his hometown for outstanding achievements in music.
 

In 2009, Martin was admitted to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he studied with the renowned pianist Professor Oleg Maisenberg. He ranked third among more than 120 applicants. During his years in Vienna, he performed at numerous international festivals, including Peter the Great (Netherlands), San Daniele Piano Meeting and Il Suono di Liszt a Villa d'Este (Italy), Varna Summer International Festival and Apolonia (Bulgaria), Beethoven Festival and Haydn Region (Austria), International Festival de Música de Toledo (Spain), Festival of Pennautier, Cabardièses Festival, and the Chopin Festival in Nohant (France).
 

In 2010, Martin made his successful debut at Salle Gaveau in Paris, which led to numerous return engagements in France through the support of French pianist and festival director Chantal Stigliani. In 2011, he made his debut on Slovak National Radio, earning acclaim for his performance of Igor Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petrushka. That same year, he met Bulgarian violinist Maria Ramalchanova, who later became his wife. The duo has since performed extensively throughout Europe, organized concerts and masterclass academies, and, since 2015, Maria has also managed Martin's artistic career.

In 2016, Martin performed a recital for France Musique, which introduced him to French pianist Yves Henry, director of the Chopin Festival in Nohant. During the same year, he embarked on three concert tours across England, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary, presenting a total of 32 piano recitals.
 

In 2017, Martin began collaborating with Austria's leading classical music label, Gramola. His first recording with the label, featuring the complete Waltzes of Frédéric Chopin, was warmly received by audiences and remains his best-selling album. He followed this with Fantasiestücke und Novelletten by Robert Schumann (2018), Sonata in B Minor and the Paganini Études by Franz Liszt (2019), and Complete Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt (2020).
 

Alongside his regular concert activity, Martin presented one of the most ambitious performances of his career in 2019, performing all of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies in a single sold-out recital in Vienna. Lasting more than two hours, the program demanded extraordinary technical mastery, endurance, and memory. While similar performances may have taken place historically, no documented precedent is known.
 

Beginning in 2021, Martin devoted significant time to studio recording. His recording projects include albums of Liszt transcriptions, selected works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Chopin's Nocturnes, the five-volume Concert Repertoire series, Martin Ivanov Plays Martin Ivanov, and numerous chamber music recordings, amounting to a total of twelve albums recorded during 2021–2022.
 

Also in 2021, Martin made his debut in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, performing Antonín Dvořák's Piano Concerto, Op. 33, with the Symphony Orchestra of the Musikverein under the baton of Robert Zelzer.