The Conductors
Stilian Kirov
Conducting Fellow
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Stilian Kirov, a native of Bulgaria, is currently Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. Kirov’s fellowship will include a four-week residency, during which he will be mentored by Ludovic Morlot as well as guest conductors Andrew Manze and Jesús López-Cobos. He will have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of repertoire as he serves as cover conductor for performances on the Masterworks, Baroque & Wine, Discover Music, and Beyond the Score series.
This season marks Stilian Kirov’s first as Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. He previously served as Music Director and founder of the Art Symphony Orchestra in New York and has conducted major orchestras in France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the United States and in his native Bulgaria. Numerous prizes and awards have been given to Kirov, including the Orchestra Preference Award and Third Prize at the 2010 Mitropoulos Conducting Competition; the 2009 Charles Schiff Conducting Award for outstanding achievement at The Juilliard School; and the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship, among others. Kirov is a laureate of the 2010 Young Talented Conductors Edition organized by the Adami Association in France, and has conducted Orchestre Colonne at the laureates’ concert in Salle Gaveau in Paris. Kirov was also awarded The David Effron Conducting Fellowship at the Chautauqua Music Festival during the summer of 2010.
Kirov served as assistant conductor at the National Repertory Orchestra in 2009 and l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Massy in France for the 2005–2006 Season. He also worked as a cover conductor for Princeton Symphony in 2009–2010 and for a co-production between Opéra de Massy and Opéra National de Montpellier in 2005. Kirov has conducted major orchestras including the Memphis Symphony, Orchestre Colonne (France), Orchestra of Colours (Greece), New World Symphony, The Thüringen Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany), Sofia Festival Orchestra, Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra “Leopolis” (Ukraine), The Juilliard Orchestra, The Sofia Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and others. He has studied with such distinguished conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Gianluigi Gelmetti, George Manahan and Dominique Rouits. He graduated from the Orchestral Conducting Program of The Juilliard School, where he studied with James DePreist.
As a pianist, Kirov is a gold medalist of the “Claude Kahn” International Piano Competition in Paris, and has worked with eminent conductors such as James Conlon, Roberto Abbado and James Levine.