Ilan Volkov is Principal Guest Conductor of Brussels Philharmonic since the 2022/23 season. He develops and expands the path of new music with the orchestra, with a clear focus on performance as well as research.
A place where contemporary music is given the leading role, researched and tested, and exposed to other arts or forms of performance. A radical decision to experiment and focus on the future, with guest conductor Ilan Volkov.
Music stripped to its essence—where sound meets silence, and silence becomes sound. In a world full of noise, minimalism creates space for stillness, and that’s where its power lies.
With this programme, Ilan Volkov questions the idea of ‘minimal’: what do we label as such, and what else—seen from another angle—might also be considered minimal? An experimental evening with electronics and voice as key elements.
Electronics in the concert hall? Think of it as a spark of invisible magic—something mechanical yet alive, opening up the symphonic sound, enriching it, or pushing back against it. Ilan Volkov brings together four composers who let two sound worlds clash and collide—or seamlessly blend.
With Ilan Volkov at the helm, the Brussels Philharmonic presents the Second and Sixth Symphonies by Luc Brewaeys: in the latter, Brewaeys brings together everything he stands for - the vibrant coloration of 20th-century spectralism, a bold orchestral configuration and a confrontation with electronics. Clearly influenced by that élan, Daan Janssens composed a new concerto for violin, orchestra and surround electronics.
Born in Israel to concert pianist Alexander Volkov and historian Shulamit Volkov, he inherited musical genes and from an early age studied violin, piano and composition before turning to conducting. Still a teenager, he became Seiji Ozawa’s assistant at Boston Symphony Orchestra and by the age of 27 he had been appointed Chief Conductor of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, then the youngest conductor of a BBC orchestra. Twenty years on, he still works with the orchestra regularly as Principal Guest Conductor.
Volkov’s own listening tastes are voracious and open-minded, including pop, folk and jazz, but he is especially passionate about new and experimental music and the process of working with composers. As part of his mission, he often focuses on composers whose work deserves more public attention, for example George Lewis and Claude Vivier.
With that in mind, in 2012 he launched his Tectonics Festival, which has become one of the world’s most diverse and acclaimed celebrations of new music. It has had editions around the globe from Adelaide and Athens to Reykjavík and Tel Aviv, offering opportunities to local composers, while still based in Glasgow, home of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Volkov’s fierce intellect allows him to read the most complex of orchestral scores and he is skilled at interpreting the even more complicated demands of opera and ballet, most recently including Samir Odeh-Tamimis’s new creation The Arab Apocalypse for the Aix Festival and George Haas’s Sym-phonie MMXX for Berliner Festspiele.
Equally, he brings this intelligence and depth to the standard repertoire and is in demand by ensembles and festivals across the world. His discography also represents this eclecticism and he has won a Gramophone Award for Britten and critical acclaim for Liszt.
I am thrilled to embark on this adventure with Brussels Philharmonic. During the several projects that I was able to work on with the orchestra, I felt the openness and appetite to discover new musical ground. The level of the orchestra and the individual musicians is so high that as Principal Guest Conductor I will have all the ingredients necessary to explore new horizons. Together we will build a laboratory – a dynamic hub for the development and performance of new music.
