PAVEL BALEFF made his debut as a conductor at the age of 18, in 1995 he graduated from the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in the conducting classes of prof. Vasil Kazandjiev and prof. Georgi Robev. In 1993 he received the award of the Bulgarian National Radio “Young Musician of the Year” and made recordings for the National Radio and Television.
From 1995 to 1998 he specialized in Weimar, Germany. Since 1995 he has been a participant in the “Conducting Forum” program of the German Music Council, where he currently leads master classes in conducting, and since 2014 – a conducting class at the Higher School of Music in Mannheim as well.
Winner of the First Prize of the International Competition for Conductors “Carl Maria von Weber” (1996), First Prize of the National Competition of Higher Music Schools in Germany (1999), the “Herbert von Karajan” Prize, the Representative Prize for Conductors of Bad Homburg (2003).
Pavel Baleff directed the Dresden Chamber Opera, was the first conductor and musical director of the Rostock (1999-2002) and Halle Opera Theaters(2002-2008). Since 2007 he has been the chief conductor of the Baden-Baden Philharmonic and the chief artistic director of the International Carl Flash Academy in collaboration with the concertmasters of the Berlin Philharmonic.
He is a guest conductor of the Hamburg State Opera, the Komische Opera Berlin, the Semperopera Dresden, the Stuttgart Opera, the Leipzig Opera, the Hanover Opera, the Bremen Opera and more than 40 orchestras in Germany.
In 2012 he made his debut at the Zurich Opera, from where he received annual invitations for various opera and ballet productions until 2020 inclusive.
In the 2016/2017 season, Pavel Baleff made his debut at the Vienna State Opera and was invited again for performances in 2018 and 2020.
He has been working for years and in constant collaboration with: the Danish National Radio Orchestra – Copenhagen, the National Academic Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the National Opera and Orchestra of Montpellier, the Singapore National Orchestra, the Limoges Opera, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Slovak National Orchestra, the Slovak National -Weimar, the Sofia Philharmonic, the Cannes City Orchestra, the North Holland Philharmonic in Groningen and the Wuntertour Music College. Pavel Baleff has visited orchestras in the USA many times.
In the 2019/20 season, the conductor was again a guest of the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera, made his debut at the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg, worked again with the orchestras of Groningen, Cannes, Sofia; conducts again many Asian orchestras on tour with Diana Damrau and Nicola Teste (Singapore, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan).
Pavel Baleff gives concerts with world performers such as Anne – Sophie Mutter, Edita Gruberova, Thomas Hampson, Krassimira Stoyanova, Veselina Katsarova, Luca Pizarroni, Ramon Vargas, Diana Damrau, Piotr Bechala, Anna Netrebko.
Krassimira Stoyanova’s recitals “Slavic Opera Arias”, “Verdi Arias” and “Verismo” under the musical direction of Pavel Baleff receive the “International Classical Music Award 2012”, the annual award of the German music critic for 2012, as well as the award of the German music critic for 2014 and 2017.
After completing his position as Chief Conductor of the Baden-Baden Philharmonic in July 2022, from the season 2022 – 2023 Pavel Baleff will take the position of Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Limoges Opera – France and will be a permanent Guest Conductor at the Baden-Baden Philharmonic. – Baden for five seasons until 2027.
