Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin studied for two years at the State Academy of Music majoring in Piano under Ivan Torchanov and Music Theory under Professor Dobri Hristov, Professor Pavel Stefanov and Professor Nikola Atanassov (1923-25). He graduated from the State Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in Vienna in 1929 as a student of the vocal pedagogue T. Lierhammer. Concurrently he studied composition with Y. Marx. After his graduation he taught Singing at the State Academy of Music (1929-36) and assisted Professor Lierhammer in Vienna. In 1938 he returned to Bulgaria. In 1940 he joined again the staff of the State Academy of Music as a lecturer. He became full professor (1944), was elected Rector (1948-54) and Dean of the Opera Studies Faculty (1960-74). He worked as a vocal pedagogue at the Conservatories of Peking, Tientsin and Shanghai (1955-58). His students were among the well-known Bulgarian singers as Lyuba Velic, etc.

He composed two operettas; cantatas; chamber music; 50 solo songs; songs for mixed, equal voices and traditional music choir, etc. In the 1940s and 1950s he wrote his best chamber-instrumental works including his Pastoral for flute and piano or Sevdana for violin and piano (which later was transcribed for other instruments), as well as the songs The Blue-eyed Girl, the cycle Bachelor Songs, etc. They are among the emblematic musical-poetical repertoire for the Bulgarian performers. He has been awarded with many honors and awards.

Operettas:
The Rebels’ Song (1955);
The Hidden Treasure (in co-authorship with his son Georgi Cherkin, 1961)

Choral-orchestral works:
September 1923, lyrics by P. Tiholov (1945);
Little Cantata, words in Chinese after Chinese poems by May Lee (1957).

Chamber Music:
String Quartet;
Trio N1 (1944); Trio N2 (1948).
Pastoral for flute and piano (1948);
Ancient Song for trumpet and piano (1952);
Three Pieces for oboe (1961).

For violin and piano:
Sevdana (1944, also transcribed for viola and piano, for violoncello and piano);
Waltz-Caprice (1944);
Elegy (1946);
Song and Rachenitza (1946);
Evening Song (1946);
Joke (1946);
Four Pieces (1947).

For piano:
Little fantasy;
Three bagatelles;
Two studies;
Three little pieces (1949);
Bulgarian Dance;
Two dances;
Light studies (1950);
Prelude; Traditional dance (1951).

Solo Songs:
The Blue-eyed Girl, on a poem by Elisaveta Bagriana (1944);
Momini jalbi (Maid’s Complaint) (1945);
Luda mladost (Reckless Youth) (1946);
Lele Yano (1946);
Winter Evenings (1958).

Choral songs:
For mixed choir:
Our Party, lyrics by K. Maslarov (1945).

For equal voices choir:
Pristanusha (Runaway Bride), traditional lyrics (1948).

Selected literature on him (in Bulgarian):
Karapetrov, Konstantin. Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin (Sofia, 1974).