ILYICH RIVAS, MUSIC DIRECTOR
© Aude Boissaye, Studio Cuicui, 2023
The young venezuelan-american conductor Ilyich Rivas (b. 1993) launched his professional career at the age of 16 in front of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Ever since, he has led some of the world’s finest ensembles including: the London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hanover, Tonkeunstler Orchesetra Vienna, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia.
Ilyich comes from a distinguished musical family of Venezuela, his father Alejandro being his first conducting teacher and mentor. Aged 15, Ilyich was awarded the position of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/ Peabody Institute Conducting fellow, earning him an Artist Diploma at Johns Hopkins University while simultaneously granting him the position of assistant conductor to Marin Alsop. At 18, he became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s assistant conductor under Vladimir Jurowski, as well at the the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Ilyich’s career as an opera conductor includes the productions; Le Nozze di Figaro and Hansel and Gretel at Glyndebourne, The Threepenny Opera with the London Philharmonic at West Green House, La Traviata at Reisopera in the Netherlands, La Boheme with the UK’s Opera North, and in 2024, Gabriela Lena Frank’s ‘El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego’, in an Opera Omaha co-production with the San Francisco and Los Angeles Operas.
Since his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris with l’Orchestre National d’Île-de-France in May 2022, Ilyich has established himself in Paris. He is represented by Nicholas Mathias at IMGA, London.