BIOGRAPHY

    Chorus master and  orchestral conductor Ilia Mihaylov has been hailed as “one of the youngest and yet most respected Bulgarian conductors“(Standart News). In February 2012 he was appointed  as a Conductor of the Bulgarian National Choir ,,Svetoslav Obretenov”, on the staff of  the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.  As an orchestral conductor he has appeared with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Varna State Opera, the symphonies of Plovdiv, Ruse and Pazardjik, the Studio Primo Chamber Orchestra, and the Consort for Early Music Concerto Antico. During the 2000/2001 season he served as Artistic Director for the Liderkranz - Concordia Chorus and Orchestra in Geneva (Switzerland).                                                                                                                                

 

     Since 1999, Ilia Mihaylov is the Music Director of the Grammy Award and Grand Prix du Disque winning choir The Great Voices of Bulgaria (a.k.a. Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares). With them he has toured in England, Russia, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, Holland and the Azores Islands. In 2004 the The Great Voices of Bulgaria were selected by the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to produce two albums, Anthology and The Treasures of Bulgaria which were to become the country’s official gift for the occasion of its joining The European Union.  Mr. Mihaylov and the choir have recorded for BBC Radio 3 and the Naïve label. In 2010 they were featured in an hour long documentary by the French music television network MEZZO, which was included in the prestigious series The Choirs of Europe, a very high honor as only ten emblematic choirs and conductors were portrayed in this program.

 

     Ilia Mihaylov regularly works with the world-famous Bulgarian musician, kaval virtuoso and composer Theodosii Spassov, with whom he created several projects and toured abroad. Highlights of Mr. Mihaylov’s creative activities include recording music by the renowned composer Мichel Colombier; creating an original score for Jean Epstein’s 1923 silent film La Belle Nivernaise together with the trio of the French jazz pianist François Raulin; premiering in Bulgaria the works of the internationally acclaimed composer Daniel Schnyder; collaborating with the Hungarian organist László Fassang and traditional flute and bagpipe virtuoso Bálazs Dongó Sokolay; recording for the Bulgarian National Radio Golden Archive the film scores of the legendary composer Mitko Shterev, and appearing as a conductor alongside the iconic progressive rock band FSB.

 

      Mr. Mihaylov conducted concerts at many of the world's great festivals, including Bath International Music Festival and The Lichfield Festival (U.K.), Moscow Easter Festival (Russia), Mondial Choral Loto- Quebec, L’art Vocal and Mondial des Cultures (Canada), Strade del Cinema (Italy), Donaufest (Germany), Music in Old Cracow (Poland), MUPA (Hungary), Kamermuziek Festival- Almere (Holland), Encontro de Coros da Ilha Terceira (Portugal), New Year Music Festival, Apollonia, The Twelfth Salon des Arts , and the European Music Festival in his native Bulgaria, among others.

 

     Mr. Mihaylov is one of the founding members and Artistic Director of the Bulgarian Musical Society. Since September 2009 he has been on the faculty of the American College of Sofia.

 

      Born in Sofia, Bulgaria Ilia Mihaylov is an alumnus of The Juilliard School (New York), Lausanne and Geneva Conservatory (Switzerland). Fellow of the Royal Schools of Music (FRSM) in Music Direction (Symphony Orchestra) from the London’s ABRSM, Mr.Mihaylov studied conducting with Professor Vassil Kazandjiev, Rossen Milanov and Michel Corboz. He worked professionally with such eminent conductors as Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Mazur, Ivan Fisher, Danielle Gatti, Jesús López Cobos, as well as with the choreographers Pina Bausch and Maurice Béjar.