Hristov was born in Varna, then in the Ottoman Empire. He graduated from the Prague Conservatory in 1903 (under the directorship of the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvořák). He returned to Bulgaria and helped with the development of Bulgarian music culture, using many Bulgarian folklore elements in his compositions. He was conductor of The Seven Saintsensemble and choir in the church of the same name in Sofia, Bulgaria between 1911 and 1928. He died in Sofia in 1941 at age 65.
