Tutev’s father was Bulgarian and his mother German. He spent part of his childhood in Dusseldorf. He graduated from the Moscow State Conservatoire “Pyotr Tchaikovsky” in 1950 majoring in Composition under Professor Yury Shaporin and V. Bely and Conducting under Professor Nikolay Anosov. In Bulgaria he studied Composition with Professor Lubomir Pipkov and Piano and Harmony with Professor Vesselin Stoyanov. In Bulgaria he worked as a freelance composer. He was secretary of the Union of Bulgarian Composers (1954-58), music editor at the Bulgarian National Radio (1958-61), music director and principal conductor of the orchestra of the Youth National Theatre (1961-87). In 1990, he founded the Bulgarian Society of New Music as a section of the ISCM and became its first president, establishing the annual international festival Musica Nova – Sofia in 1993.

He was member of the Union of Theatre Workers and of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers.

His music is connected with the vanguard trends in Bulgarian music. His work is mainly instrumental; it is not very large but could be considered part of the most innovative approaches in contemporary Bulgarian music. His first mature works were scored for symphony orchestra. In the early 1960s he embraced serial and aleatory techniques.

He composed two symphonies; works for strings and other instrumental ensembles; pieces for piano; film music, music to TV and theatre performances; solo and choral songs, etc. Most of his works were premiered abroad and included in the programmes of authoritative European music festivals such as the Zagreb Biennial Festival, Warsaw Autumn, the Musik-Biennale in Berlin, festivals in Saint Petersburg, Prague, Budapest, Hale, Berlin, Paris, Basel, Birmingham, etc. He recorded for the Bulgarian National Radio and also for foreign radio companies. A number of his works received their first performances abroad.

Works for symphony orchestra:
Symphony N1 (1959);
Symphony N2 “Variations” (1968-71) (revised 1974, performed in Warsaw by the Warsaw Philharmonic conducted by Konstantin Iliev);

Legend of Lopansky Forest – symphony poem (1950);

The Riot on “Avrora” – symphony suite (1955);

Overtura da Requiem (1963; performed by the Radio France National Orchestra conducted by Konstantin Iliev, 1965);

Musica peritos in la Glorificat on themes by an anonymous Renaissance master (1975).

Works for string orchestra:
Longing for Lost Harmony – concert music for large string orchestra, kaval, keyboards and percussion (1979).

Chamber instrumental music:
Metamorphoses for 13 strings instruments (1966);
Tempi Ritmisati for strings, piano and percussion (1968, performed at Warsaw Autumn by the Sofia Soloists conducted by Vasil Kazandjiev);
Musica Concertante for strings, flute, piano/harpsichord and percussion (1968);
Soli per tre for wind trio (1974);
Calvinomusica for chamber ensemble and violoncello with solo functions (based on the novel The Invisible Towns by the Italian author Italo Calvino) (1987, commissioned by the West Germany Radio in Cologne; performed at Witten New Chamber Music Days by the Sofia ensemble Collegium Musicum, conducted by V. Nikolov);

J. S. B. Meditations for chamber ensemble (1992).

Film music to:
Danka, directed by Boris Borozanov, Ivan Fichev and Kiril Ilinchev (1952);
Song of Man, directed by Borislav Sharaliev (1953);
The Crew from “Nadezhda”, directed by Kiril Ilinchev (1956);
Life Flows Slowly by, directed by Binka Zhelyazkova and Hristo Ganev (1957);
At the Break of the Dawn, directed by Dimitar Petrov (1960);
The Password, directed by Petar B. Vasilev (1964).