Konstantin Ilievsky

Konstantin is a conductor, composer, pianist and teacher, known above all from European concert stages. He has been working as a conductor with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2020 and, since 2023, has served as Chief Conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Sofia. He is also Music Director of the international orchestra Sinfonietta dell’Arte and teaches at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at the Conservatory in Bratislava.

As a conductor, he has collaborated with several renowned orchestras, including the Wiener Concert-Verein, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Slovak Philharmonic, the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, the Wrocław Philharmonic, the Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the National Opera in Tirana and the China National Symphony Orchestra in Ningbo. He has performed in many countries across Europe and Asia, and his compositions have been presented not only on European stages but also in the United States, Japan and Russia.

Ilievsky comes from a well-known Bulgarian musical family and was born in Sofia. He began studying piano at the age of five and later continued at the Conservatory in Bratislava with Peter Čerman, where he also studied conducting with Zdeněk Bílek. He subsequently studied composition and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Detlev Müller-Siemens, Kurt Schwertsik, Iván Erőd and Uroš Lajovic, completing his studies with master’s degrees.

As a conductor, composer and pianist, he has made numerous recordings for Slovak, Bulgarian and Austrian radio and television, and regularly appears at international festivals and on concert tours.
He is the author of the scholarly book The Composer as an Interpreter of His Own Perception of the World, published by the German publishing house Dr. Müller. In 2022, he received the Golden Choirmaster’s Pin in recognition of more than twenty-five years of choral conducting activity in Austria. He is a recipient of the Crystal Lyre Award for his conducting performance and, in 2024, was awarded the prestigious Golden Quill Award for his significant contribution to Bulgarian culture.

In addition to classical music, he is also active in other musical genres: in 2024, he released his original jazz album 7 Days of Life, which was nominated in 2025 for Slovakia’s Esprit Award for Best Jazz Album of the Year. In 2025, he served as a jury member at the prestigious international violin competition Violin Olympus in Dubai.

Adrian Kokoš

Since January 2004, he has worked as a choirmaster and conductor at Slovak Radio, where he re-established the Slovak Radio Children’s Choir. Since 2011, the Slovak Radio Girls’ Choir has also been part of the children’s choir. Alongside his work with the radio choir, his long-standing collaboration with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra has been a defining part of his artistic activity. He has conducted numerous premieres of works by Slovak and international composers.

He collaborates with Slovak and international musical ensembles, including the Košice State Philharmonic, the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, the Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in Zlín, Cappella Istropolitana, Sinfonietta Bratislava, Slovak Symphonists, the Lúčnica Choir, Cantica Istropolitana and the Slovak Philharmonic Choir.

As a conductor, he has appeared at several renowned music festivals, including Musica Sacra in Nitra, the Košice Sacred Art Festival, Viva Musica!, the Bratislava Music Festival, Pohoda, Smetana’s Litomyšl, Dvořák’s Olomouc, Czech Touches of Music and others. In the 2009/2010 season, he served as a guest conductor at the State Opera in Banská Bystrica. He regularly collaborates with leading figures of the Slovak and international music scene. He also appeared at the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London.

With the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Slovak Radio Children’s Choir, he has recorded numerous works from the classical repertoire, music for various radio plays, as well as film music.

He is one of the few Slovak conductors who successfully engages in combining different musical genres. In the crossover style, he has presented numerous musical projects bringing together jazz, pop, rock and folk music with classical symphonic ensembles. In 2021 and 2022, he served as a member of the expert jury of Virtuózi, a talent competition for young classical music virtuosos, in its national round.
In July 2022, he conducted the opening ceremony of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Banská Bystrica, which was broadcast live to 48 countries worldwide. In January 2024, he created a highly successful series of symphonic concerts at Šimák Castle in Pezinok, where he serves as resident conductor. In June 2024, he presented two open-air Slovak Nights concerts in Bautzen, Germany, with the local Sorbisches National-Ensemble.

Kokoš is a respected interpreter and promoter of Slovak vocal-instrumental music. He regularly contributes to artistic programmes for STVR and Czech Television.