Ilan Volkov

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Ilan Volkov (born 1976, Tel Aviv, Israel) is an orchestral conductor. His formative years were spent with the conductor Mendi Rodan at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, before continuing at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At age 19, he was named Young Conductor in Association to the Northern Sinfonia. He later served as conductor of Young Sinfonia, the youth orchestra of the Northern Sinfonia.^[1] In 1997, he became Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. In 1999, Seiji Ozawa named Volkov the Assistant Conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.^[2]

Volkov has been Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra since January 2003, having made his debut appearance with them in 1998. At the time, he was the youngest chief conductor appointed to a BBC orchestra. He was named the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Musician of the Year in 2004 in recognition of his work with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In September 2007, the orchestra announced that Volkov is scheduled to step down from the orchestra in September 2009^[3], when Scottish conductor Donald Runnicles will succeed him.

Volkov has made a speciality of recording long-unperformed or never before recorded works by neglected artists. He himself has spoken of his affinity with music written "between 1909 and the 20s".^[4] In 2006, with the BBC SSO, he released a CD of works by the Russian composer Nikolai Roslavets.

Volkov and his partner Mia have a daughter, Nadia, born in August 2007 in Israel.^[3]