Born in 1984 in Moscow, Boris Giltburg began his piano studies with his mother at the age of five. He has lived in Tel Aviv since early childhood, where he studied with Arie Vardi. He has received many awards for international competitions, notably at Santander (top prize and Audience Prize, 2002) and the Rubinstein (2nd prize and Best Classical Concerto, 2011). In 2013 he received First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition, as a result of which his already flourishing international career has been catapulted to a new level, with a packed diary of additional concert engagements across the globe.

Since his breakthrough appearance with the Philharmonia in 2007, Giltburg has been an annual visitor to the Royal Festival Hall in London, and made his BBC Proms debut in 2010 with the BBC Scottish Symphony. He is a popular guest with many UK orchestras and has also appeared with DSO Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Prague Symphony, to name a few.

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. Season 2014/15 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, this time with their Music Director Yannick Nezet Seguin. 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.

Teachers

Prof. Vadim Monastirsky (1991-1994)
Prof. Arie Vardi (1995-2007)

Degrees

- B.Mus. at the Tel Aviv University (Buchmann-Mehta School of Music) - 2001-2005
- M.Mus. at the Tel Aviv University (Buchmann-Mehta School of Music) - 2005-2007