Pavel Gililov was born in Donetsk, Ukraine, made his first appearance with an orchestra at age eight and by 11 he performed the third piano concerto of Dmitry Kabalevsky with such aplomb that the composer invited him to study in St. Petersburg at an academy for highly gifted children. The school has produced such talent as Boris Pergamenschikow, Grigory Sokolov and many others. During his studies, Pavel Gililov received high honors at the All-Russian Piano Competition in Moscow (1972) and the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1975). Gililov also displayed outstanding abilities as an instructor and after his graduation in 1976 he became the youngest professor of concert piano at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Pavel Gililov emigrated in 1978 to Cologne, Germany where he re-ignited his passion for musical instruction. Soon after his arrival in the West, Pavel Gililov won top honors at the renowned Viotti competition in Vercelli, Italy. Thus began a new phase in his life as performer. Pavel Gililov played with philharmonic orchestras from Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Moscow and Warsaw; with the Polish Broadcast Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra, RAI- Turin and others. He has worked with such renowned conductors as Lawrence Foster, Andris Jansons, Valery Gergiev and James Conlon. Gililov has visited many of the world’s cultural centers, playing in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Vienna’s Musikverein, La Scala Milan, Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Zurich’s Tonhalle, the Palais de Beaux-Arts Brussels, the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires and others. He is also an honored guest at major festivals such as Edinburgh, Newport, Schleswig Holstein and Rheingau, at Salzburg and Ludwigsburg Festivals and many more. Pavel Gililov’s recording career includes CDs for Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Victor, Toshiba EMI, Virgin and Orfeo to name a few. In addition to his solo concerts, Pavel Gililov is a lover of chamber music. Along with his schoolmate and friend, the late Boris Pergamenschikow, he created a duo that gained international renown. He also founded the Gililov Piano Quartet (formerly the Philharmonic Piano Quartet Berlin). Pavel Gililov is a Professor at the Cologne University for Music and at the Mozarteum Salzburg where he has instructed a long list of international award-winning musicians. Pavel Gililov travels the world giving masterclasses to young pianists and for years has supervised the Summer Academy in Lausanne. In addition, he is a jury member in many international competitions. In 2005, Pavel Gililov founded the Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn where he is still artistic director and jury president.