Born in 1984 in Moscow, Boris Giltburg moved to Tel Aviv at an early age, studying with his mother and then with Arie Vardi. In 2013 he won first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, catapulting his career to a new level. In 2015 he began a long-term recording plan with Naxos Records, with the release of a Schumann recital disc.
Having won the Santander Competition in 2002 and taken second (and audience) prize at the Rubinstein in 2011, he had already appeared with many leading orchestras such as Philharmonia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2010, has toured regularly to South America and China, and has also toured Germany with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. In the months following his Queen Elisabeth win in 2013, he played at the Vienna Musikverein, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Southbank Centre, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Colmar Festival, and with the Seattle Symphony, London Philharmonic and St Petersburg Philharmonic orchestras. Last season’s highlights included debuts with the NHK Symphony Tokyo, Baltimore Symphony and Rotterdam Philharmonic, his recital debut in Tokyo at Toppan Hall and in the large hall of Brussels Bozar. He has worked with conductors such as Alsop, Bělohlávek, Brabbins, De Waart, Dohnanyi, Fedoseyev, Gimeno, Neeme Jaervi, Karabits, Krivine, Lintu, Petrenko, Saraste, Shelley, Skrowaczewski, Sokhiev and Tortelier.
In 2015/16 he returns to Rotterdam De Doelen on three occasions – for his recital debut in the large hall in the prestigious piano series; to play chamber music with the Pavel Haas Quartet; and returning to the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra have invited him for 7 concerts (3 programmes) in their Rachmaninov series. Other highlights include his debut with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic (under Krivine), a Beethoven concerto cycle with Malmo Symphony and Soustrot in their new hall, and return visits to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with Vasily Petrenko, Brussels Philharmonic with Deneve, Seattle Symphony with Dausgaard, and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie with Guerrero. He also plays with the Takacs Quartet for the first time (in Bilbao and at Bozar).
Having initially appeared on the EMI Debut label some years ago, in 2012 Giltburg released an acclaimed CD of Prokofiev War Sonatas on Orchid Classics, earning him a place on the shortlist for the critics’ award at the Classical Brits. His Romantic Sonatas disc (Rachmaninov, Liszt, Grieg) followed in 2013. In 2015 Naxos released a Schumann recital disc, the first of many to come:
“The give and take of the music’s pulse is naturally felt, as is the spectrum of tonal and dynamic shading...Giltburg has the capacity to identify with and encapsulate the moods of each piece while artlessly crafting them into a shapely span.”
Daily Telegraph, February 2015
Boris is an avid amateur photographer and blogger, writing about classical music for a non-specialist audience.