Ilia Mihaylov was born in Sofia (Bulgaria) in1974. As a conductor, scholar and teacher with rich international experience, he has proven to be a successful progect manager in the field of classical, sacred, traditional and contemporary music. In 2023 he defended his PhD thesis on the Byzantine-Slavic chanting tradition at Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski," where he currently teaches. Dr. Mihaylov is active in the academy, participating on a regular basis in various scientific projects while teaching music master classes for reputable educational institiutions such as Harvard and Princeton Universities, Université Paris 8, Conservatoire de Strasbourg, Choir Academy of the Puisaye Festival (France) and Chengdu School of Culture & Art in China. He also served on the faculties of the American College of Sofia and Lycée Français Victor Hugo.
Since 1999, Dr. Mihaylov has been the Music Director of the The Great Voices of Bulgaria choir. With this ensemble, he has directed versatile projects involving extraordinary artists such as Prof. Stefan Dragostinov, the Bulgarian kaval virtuoso Theodosii Spassov, band FSB, the Hollywood composer Michel Colombier, the jazz pianist François Raulin, the saxophonists Christophe Monniot, François Corneloup, double bassist Claude Tchamitchian, Bruno Chevillon, the Hungarian organist László Fassang and his traditional flutes and bagpipe counterpart Balázs Dongó Szokolay, to name a few. He has been received with critical acclaim at many of the world's greatest festivals in over 25 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. In 2023 he created the album Yana, together with the pioneer of ethno-folk and electronic music fusion in Bulgaria Yavor Roussinoff.
From 2011 to 2015 Mihaylov was the Chorus Director of the Bulgarian National Choir Svetoslav Obretenov, and conductor of the Sofia Philharmonic. As a guest conductor, he has led all major Bulgarian orchestras, and worked closely with Studio Primo, Concerto Antico, Quarto Ensemble and Camerata Bohemiana (Czech Republic). Major highlights of his professional career include working side by side with some of the world’s preeminent artists, such as the conductors Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Mazur, Iván Fischer, Danielle Gatti, Jesús López Cobos, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Uroš Lajovic, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Michel Corboz, the tenor José Carreras and the choreographers Pina Bausch and Maurice Béjart.
Mihaylov has recorded for BBC Radio 3, and has featured on 13 albums as conductor and producer, including for Еdiciones Singulares, Brilliant Classics and Naïve labels and others. He recorded the film music of the eminent composer Mitko Shterev for the Bulgarian National Radio Golden Fund in2009. Together with Vassil Kazandjiev, he founded The Bulgarian Musical Society in 2005, and served as its Artistic Director for fourteen years.
Mihaylov was educated at HEMU (Lausanne Conservatory) in Switzerland, The Juilliard School (New York), ABRSM (London), where he studied piano, double bass, music theory, and conducting. He is fluent in English, French, Italian and Russian. In his spare time, he loves to cook, travel, play tennis and ski.
Ilia Mihaylov, Sofia, 2017.
On tour, Prague, 2018.
Musikverein, Wien, 2019.
LA BELLE NIVERNAISE, Sofia, 2017.
With my great teacher, Acad. Prof. Vassil Kazandjiev. Sofia, 2008.
With my beautiful assistant Rozaliya, Paris 2017.
Il Teatro di San Carlo, Napoli, 2019.
The Great Voices of Bulgaria, Nevers, (France) 2018.
With Jeremy Rozen, Paris, 2017.
MUSIKVEREIN, Wien, 2019.
Ilia Mihaylov, Sofia, 2012.
The rise of a Maestro, Sofia, 1999.
THE GREAT VOICES OF BULGARIA is a women’s choir of professional singers that has existed for more than 40 years. Sustaining the voice in the throat by using their neck muscles, instead of the diaphragm, this vocal technique is completely natural to them and century’s old. Since1980’s, under the direction of Zdravko Mihaylov, their repertoire was expanded to include arrangements of traditional Bulgarian music composed with modern harmony and polyphony by authors such as Philip Koutev, Krassimir Kyurkchiysky, Stefan Dragostinov, Peter Liondev and Stefan Moutafchiev to name a few.
Soloists of ensemble during the years have been Nadka Karadjova, Liliana Galevska, Kalinka Valcheva, Elena Bozhkova, Olga Borisova, Kremena Stancheva, Anastasia Kostova, Vasilka Andonova, Nadejda Chwoineva, Stoyanka Boneva, Stoyana Lalova, Yanka Taneva, Hristina Lutova, Tsvetanka Varimezova, and Zlatina Ouzounova. Thus creating the best possible collection of folklore voices and songs and thanks to Mihaylov’s abilities, the choir gained international fame and won the Grand Prix de Disque at MIDEM, France.
Since 1999, Ilia Mihaylov became the Music Director of the The Great Voices of Bulgaria. Together they have been immensely successful realising versatile projects with extraordinary artist such as the Bulgarian kaval virtuoso Theodosii Spassov, the Hollywood composer Michel Colombier, the jazz pianist François Raulin and his trio, the contemporary visual artists Missirkov/Bogdanov, the Hungarian organist László Fassang and his traditional flutes and bagpipe counterpart Balázs Dongó Szokolay, among other.
The choir have appeared to a critical acclaim in over 20 countries in Europe, Asia and North America at many of the world's great festivals. Master classes for the Harvard University, Paris University 8, and the Conservatory of Strasbourg are regular part of their educational programs.
In the past, the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs selected Mr. Mihaylov and the choir to produce two albums, which were to become the country’s official gift for the occasion of its joining the European Union. In 2005, Valery Gergiev invited The Great Voices of Bulgaria at the Moscow Easter Festival, and they performed concerts in the Kremlin, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, and St. Peter’s Monastery. In the same year the choir toured Canada and established a box office record, as one of their concerts sold 10 000 tickets. In 2019, they went to Chengdu, China at UNESCO 7’Th International Festival of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
BBC Radio 3 recorded the Great Voices of Bulgaria on a program, and the French music channel MEZZO TV featured them on a documentary, which was included in the prestigious series The Choirs of Europe.
The Great Voices of Bulgaria, Sofia, 2020.
Balkan Crossover Project, Sofia, 2011.
Theodosii Spassov, Sofia, 2008.
Theodosii Spassov and Ilia Mihaylov, Sofia, 2009.
Marina and Fanka singing, Sofia, 2020.
The Great Voices of Bulgaria.
The Embassy Concert, Paris, 2017.
Ilia Mihaylov in rehearsal, Sofia, 2020.
Balkan Crossover, Budapest, 2010.
Ilia Mihaylov, Sofia, 2018.
Tsaritsa (Queen) Giovanna of the Bulgarians, Lisbon, 1996.
Ilia Mihaylov, The Great Voices of Bulgaria, 2000.
The friendship connecting the composer Yavor Rоussinoff - a doyen in the blending of electronic music and Bulgarian folklore - with the conductor Ilia Mihaylov quite naturally sublimated the idea of creating a joint album with the choir of the "The Great Voices of Bulgaria", on which the creative process began in 2018. For it, well-known performers such as Vesko Eshkenazi (violin), Teodosii Spasov (kaval), Vasil Mihaylov (actor), with whom Rоussinoff and Mihaylov have been working over the years, have been involved.
The solo vocals are entrusted to Desislava Petrova, Veselka Stamboliyeva and Krasimira Stoyanova - singers from the choir "The Great Voices of Bulgaria", who not only interpret songs from different folklore regions, but also actively participate in the musical interaction. The album "Yana" includes songs such as "Temen Gyuro", "Katerino Mome", "Kozhillo", "Stani momice", as well as the iconic song about Captain Petko Voyvoda, recorded in an updated version and original arrangement by Roussinoff. Krassimir Kyurkchiyski is the only other composer present in the project with his choral score "Rofinka", remixed by Yavor, representing with its new sound a dialogue between these two generations of composers.
The quality of the recording and the unique atmosphere of the creative process that can be felt through, and it is undoubtedly due to Rusinov's studio (where the solo part of the recordings was made, the choral ones were recorded in Studio 5 of Sofia University) located in a 150 year old stone and wood house in the southeastern Rhodopes.
The premiere of Jana, although delayed due to objective circumstances (including the COVID -19 crisis), finally took place in November 2023 with the kind support of MUSICAUTOR and is available on all major digital platforms as well as on CD. As a worthy representative of contemporary Bulgarian musical culture, it has the ambition to be presented in the near future "live" through a large-scale audio-visual performance, both in Bulgaria and abroad.
The trio of the French jazz pianist and composer François Raulin and "The Great Voices of Bulgaria" choir, conducted by Ilia Mihaylov, have been working together since 2007. Together they created the cinema-concert La Belle Nivernaise, which has been presented with success at a number of festivals in Italy, France and Bulgaria. The friendly relationship established between the French musicians and the Bulgarian choir gradually shaped the idea of a new musical production, not limited by the parameters of accompanying a silent cinema. Gradually, during their visits to Bulgaria, the saxophonist Christophe Monniot and the pianist François Roulin presented their own compositions to Ilia Mihaylov, and with his help adapted and arranged them to fit the vocal range, technical and aesthetic possibilities of "The Great Voices of Bulgaria". Especially for this "adventure" the double bassist Claude Tchamtchian was involved.
The repertoire includes:
- French chansonnes - Piaf's La foule and Aznavour's Emmenez-moi;
- American jazz standards - "I Child is Born" and "Somethimes I fell like a motherless child";
- French arrangements of famous Bulgarian folk songs such as "Temnei Goro", "Vecheryai Rado", "Dilmano, dilbero";
- "jazzed" interpretations of works by Bulgarian authors such as "Dilmano, Dilbero" by Kurkchiyski and "Velikden Ide" by Dragastinov.
- Original compositions by the members of the trio.
In summary, this entirely new musical material in which French and Bulgarian musical influences intertwine develops the idea of aesthetically interpenetrating and complementing these seemingly distant musical cultures. Giving a new identity to the respective musical heritages the project, ,,NEW ROOTS" was born. It premiered at the Détours de Babeles festival in Grenoble, France in March 2023 to great acclaim.
Here's what the French press wrote about him:
,,The charm worked from the start. The strong, delicate, clear, low, powerful voices were in complete symbiosis with the instruments, which were sometimes a fifteenth voice. It was a pleasure to listen to French chansons revisited by our [French] jazz trio, which also arranged traditional Bulgarian pieces, each of the musician-composers bringing his own specificity - either jazz, French chansonnes or his taste for Eastern music. This crossing of musical roots (or rather influences) delighted the very enthusiastic audience. Long live this unique and exceptional creation - New Roots - a joyous, warm and colourful musical production."
(Jazz Rona Alps)
Christophe Monniot (saxophone), Novi Koreni, Festival Détours de Babel, 2023.
Marina, Yoanna, Yordanka, (The Great Voices of Bulgaria), Festival Détours de Babel, 2023.
Claude Tchamitchian (double bass), François Raullin (piano),Novi Koreni, 2023.
Ilia Mihaylov (conductor),Claude Tchamitchian (double bass),Christophe Monniot (saxophone) in rehearsal, Grenoble, France, 2023.
The Great Voices of Bulgaria, Novi Koreni, Festival Détours de Babel, Grenoble/Isère, 2023.
Ilia Mihaylov (conductor), Yoanna Damova (voice), François Raullin (piano) in rehearsal, Grenoble,2023.
Ilia Mihaylov (conductor), before the Novi Koreni concert, Festival Détours de Babel, 2023.
Ilia Mihaylov, Claude Tchamitchian, Christophe Monniot in rehearsal, Grenoble, 2023.
François Raullin (piano), Novi Koreni, Festival Détours de Babel, 2023.
Yordanka and Marina (The Great Voices of Bulgaria), Novi Koreni, 2023.
Ilia Mihaylov & The Great Voices of Bulgaria. On tour, 2023.
Claude Tchamitchian, Christophe Monniot, Ilia Mihaylov, François Raullin, Grenoble 2023.
“La Belle Nivernaise” is an unexpected combination of a silent film by the great director in the history of European cinema Jean Epstein, the Great Voices of Bulgaria choir conducted by Ilia Mihaylov and the Trio of the French jazz pianist François Raulin. Presented to great success in Italy, France and Bulgaria it earned rave reviews describing it as “an event of European scale, a real symbiosis of impressionist cinema and Eastern Balkan music.”
This cinema concert is devised as a series of musical pictures developing against the background of the images from the film by commenting or supplementing them. The magic power of Bulgarian voices is a unique match to the original compositions of the trio of jazz musicians. Thus, an intriguing dialogue between the European jazz and its improvisational element and the timeless music of folk songs is attained.
Diverse music sensibility creates a new and rare sound and while acting as a support to the film’s plot it becomes an unexpected co-author of the cinema narrative.
Ilia Mihaylov and François Raulin in rehearsal, Sofia, 2017.
La Belle Nivernaise, Varna, 2018.
Before the concert, La Belle Nivernaise, Varna, 2018.
LA BELLE NIVERNAISE, Sofia, 2017.
Enrico Montroset, Aosta, Italy, 2019.
Aosta, Italy, 2008.
Bruno Chevillon (contrebasse), François Raulin (piano)
Christophe Monniot (saxophone), Sofia, 2017.
La Belle Nivernaise, Varna, 2019.
Bruno Chevillon (contrebasse), Sofia, 2017.
The Great Voices of Bulgaria, Francois Raulin Trio and Enrico Montroset, Aosta, Italy, 2019.
The Roman Theatre, Aosta, Italy, 2019.
Mitko Sterev’s Film Music
The Union of Bulgarian Film Makers has given Mitko Shterev, vastly famous as an author of evergreens and composer of the music to more than 30 motions pictures the “Movie Composer of the Century Award”. In the autumn 2009, the Bulgarian National Radio invited the renowned Bulgarian composer to record his music. Ilia Mihaylov, with whom Sterev have been working for a long time and touring extensively, conducted the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra with the composer playing the piano parts himself. A selection of some of his best film scores like Doomed Souls (1975), Rеturn from Rome (1976), Adaptation (1979), The Lot (1993), The Prince and the Pauper (2005), A Man for a Million (2006), to name a few was issued on a CD that was later to become a national bestseller.
The composer Mitko Sterev.
Recording secion, Sofia, 2009.
With the musicians from Varna Young Orchestra.
With the Minister of Culture Prof. Stefan Danailov. Varna, 2008.
Rehearsal for Mitko Sterev's film music. Sofia, 2009.
With Studio Primo Chamber Orchestra, Sofia 2008.
Theatrical poster for Doomed Souls.
Edit Szalay and Jan Engelert as the main characters ion Doomed Souls.
Vassil Naidenov singing the titel song from Adaptation, 1979.
Kosta Tzonev in the titel role of The Lot, 1993.
Theatrical poster for Returning from Rome, 1976.
German actress Dagmar Lassander in Returning from Rome, 1976.
Through his dynamic presence on the podium, and tireless advocacy for arts education Ilia Mihaylov has introduced music to new audiences around the world.
Giving masterclasses and collaborating with major educational institutions he has created divers teaching projects for students from all levels and musical background.
Ilia has committed time and energy to his mission of bringing music to young people, firm in his belief that the arts play an essential role in creating a more just, peaceful, and integrated society.
Ilia Mihaylov, Sofia, 2012.
Concert with ACS Choir and instrumental students, Sofia, 2011.
Christmas concert with ACS, Sofia, 2012.
Rehearsal with ACS students, Sofia, 2013.
With Prof. Andrew Clark from Harvard University, 2012.
ACS Choir and instrumental program students, Sofia, 2014.
Harvard University's Radcliffe Choral Society, 2012.
Summer tour with La Maîtrise Saint-Louis de Gonzague, France, 2014.
Masterclass at Chengdu School of Culture & Art, China, 2019.
Bulgarian dance, Chengdu, China, 2019.
On tour, Paris, 2017.
With our best fan, Chengdu, China, 2019.
The Sound of Byzantium is a musicological research project whose main goal is to present the European musical roots of Bulgaria trough the Slavic - Byzantine ecclesiastical musical tradition. The aim is to lift the veil of the Byzantine world – a sui generis prototype of the European Union with his heart in Constantinople, his body in the Slavic countries - Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Russia in which the Orthodox Christianity is the principle structurally founding element. The dearest infant of this world is the civilization called Byzantine, which is one of the two faces of Europe and constructs the inseparable historical heritage of our continent.
Nowadays, Orthodox music has been undeservedly marginalized, while in Western Europe, ecclesiastical music is increasingly heard from recordings and concert performances. It is necessary to bring the achievements of the theoretical research on Eastern music to the knowledge of the society in a captivating and modern fashion.
Systematizing and recovering works dating from 10th–19th century, transcribed from old sources, manuscripts, and collected from various monasteries, archives, and funds, the chants are studied and performed by contemporary church singers with theological education. The project will summarize the liturgical music, used in the Balkan Peninsula, music that have influenced the development of Western European culture for more than a millennium.
In 2018, Ilia Mihaylov and his Ensemble for Byzantine music Sofia Psaltes recorded and published some of the studied material on CD, accompanied by explanatory texts in luxurious bilingual (BG, EN) book edition.
Ilia Mihaylov, Zemen Monastery, Bulgaria, 2020.
Sofia Psaltes, Ensemble for Byzantine music, Sofia, 2018.
Byzantine Church of St. John at Kaneo, North Macedonia, 2019.
Byzantine notation.
Karyes, Mounth Athos
St. John Koukouzelis.
An icon depicting Romanos the Melodist.
The Monastery of Simonopetra, Mounth Athos, Greece.
The wheel (trochos) known as 'the solfège of Master John Koukouzelis'
The Dochiariou Monastery , Mount Athos, Greece.
Sofia Psaltes Ensemble, Sofia, 2018.
Sunset at Pantokratoros Monastery, Mounth Athos, Greece, 2019.
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Yana Project
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AB ORIENTE LUX: Chants of the Orthodox East.
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THE GREAT VOICES OF BULGARIA: Anthology
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MEYERBEER IN FRANCE
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CHARLES SIMON CATEL: Les Bayadères
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JEWS IN BULGARIA
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MITKO STEREV: Film Music
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BLUBA LU / Andronia Popova (Roni): Live at the National Radio Hall Studio One
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TREASURES OF BULGARIA
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THE GREAT VOICES OF BULGARIA / Dimitar Petrov: Anthology
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LARGO WINCH TV SERIES: Soundtrack
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THE GREAT VOICES OF BULGARIA: Bulgarian traditional songs
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THE GREAT VOICES OF BULGARIA: Orthodox Chants