Stilian Kirov is our fourth Music Director Candidate to audition for the role with the HPO this year on Saturday, November 29 at Brilliance: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
When we asked Stilian about his summer plans back in July, he said, “I’ll have the most important engagement in my life: becoming a father. He is our very first child so this is why my main summer activity this year will be learning how to be dad.” Of course, some of the first pieces his son will hear, he adds, will be Beethoven’s Second Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto as Stilian prepares for our upcoming concert this Saturday.
Stilian is the Associate Conductor of the Seattle Symphony and has served as the Associate Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. In 2013, he was invited to be a cover conductor for the Boston Symphony as well as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Stilian has conducted orchestras around the world, including the Orchestre Colonne (France), Zagreb Philharmonic (Croatia), State Hermitage Orchestra (Russia), New World Symphony, Thüringen Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany), Sofia Festival Orchestra, Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra “Leopolis” (Ukraine), Amarillo Symphony and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Kirov was invited to be a 2013 Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2012, he was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, and in 2010 was awarded the David Effron Conducting Fellowship at the Chautauqua Music Festival, where he also returned in 2012 as a guest conductor. Among Stilian Kirov’s numerous awards and prizes are an Emmy Award for the Soundtrack Project with the Memphis Symphony, the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship and Charles Schiff Conducting Award for outstanding achievement at The Juilliard School.
Stilian is a graduate in orchestral conducting of The Juilliard School, where he was a student of James DePreist. He also holds a master’s degree from the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris where he studied with Dominique Rouits. He also worked with such distinguished conductors as Kurt Masur, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gianluigi Gelmetti, George Manahan and Asher Fisch.
You can catch Stilian at our HPO at Library program on Friday, November 29 at 12:45pm in the Hamilton Public Library as he talks about his career experiences and the life of a professional conductor.
Watch Stilian as he conducts Smetana’s Die Moldau.