Born in Israel in 1976, Ilan Volkov was appointed Young Conductor in Association to the Northern Sinfonia at the age of nineteen. In 1997 he became Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and two years later was invited by Seiji Ozawa to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Conductor. He was Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2009, subsequently becoming Principal Guest Conductor. Ilan Volkov is a frequent guest with orchestras throughout the world, including the Israel and Munich Philharmonic orchestras, the Bamberg, City of Birmingham, Melbourne and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony orchestras, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington DC), Orchestre de Paris, SWR Freiburg, MDR Leipzig, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de Lyon and the Ensemble Modern. In the opera house he has conducted Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin for San Francisco Opera, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Glyndebourne Festival (having previously appeared with Glyndebourne Touring Opera) and Britten’s Peter Grimes for Washington National Opera.

His critically acclaimed recordings for Hyperion include two CDs of Stravinsky ballets; a disc of Janácek orchestral music; a recording of Britten’s complete works for piano and orchestra with Steven Osborne, which won a 2009 Gramophone Award; two discs of Roslavets, including the violin concertos with Alina Ibragimova; violin concertos by Taneyev and Arensky with Ilya Gringolts; viola concertos by Rubbra and Walton with Lawrence Power; and Reger’s Piano Concerto and Richard Strauss’s Burleske with Marc-André Hamelin.

Ilan Volkov is one of the guiding forces behind Levontin 7, a performance venue in Tel Aviv that brings together differing musical genres, including classical, jazz, electronic and rock. In 2011–12 he assumed the position of Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, where his role includes creating an annual new-music festival in which he envisages the orchestra collaborating with contemporary composers, non-classical musicians and artists.