Stilian Kirov

Stilian Kirov became the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s (IPO) Gibb Music Director for the orchestra’s 2017–2018 Season. He is a First Prize Winner of the “Debut Berlin” Concert Competition and a prizewinner at Denmark’s 2015 Malko Competition and the 2010 Mitropoulos Competition. Kirov has received numerous Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards (2016–2019), and debuted at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2017. A former Music Director of New Jersey’s Symphony in C (2015–2020), Kirov became Music Director of the Bakersfield Symphony in 2015. For the 2024–2025 Season, Kirov has assumed the role of Interim Artistic Advisor for the Southwest Florida Symphony.

Highlights of Kirov’s guest performances include appearances worldwide with the Seattle Symphony, Israel Camerata, Xi’An Symphony, Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, Leopolis Chamber Orchestra/Ukraine, Orchestra of Colors/Athens, Orchestre Colonne/Paris, Sofia Festival Orchestra, State Hermitage Orchestra/St. Petersburg, Thüringen Philharmonic Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic, Musical Olympus International Festival in St. Petersburg, Victoria Symphony/British Columbia, Omaha Symphony, and Memphis Symphony, among others.

Stilian Kirov has assisted many distinguished conductors including Bernard Haitink with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Stéphane Denève, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Sir Andrew Davis.

Kirov is a graduate of The Juilliard School’s orchestral conducting program, where he was a student of James DePreist. He also studied with Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gianluigi Gelmetti, George Manahan, Robert Spano, and Asher Fisch, among others.

Also a gifted pianist, Stilian Kirov was Gold Medalist of the 2001 Claude Kahn International Piano Competition in Paris.

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