Conductor and pianist, Yuriy Ilinov is working at the Altenburg Theater in Gera, Germany since 2019. In the period 2016-2019, he is a conductor at the Ruse State Opera and later works as a conductor and accompanist at the National Opera and Ballet in Sofia.
Before the decision to emigrate in 2016, he took his first steps as a musician in his hometown of Volgograd in Russia – from pianist and assistant conductor to music director of the State Opera and professor at the Institute of Arts. He is co-founder and conductor of the Volgograd Children's Symphony Orchestra, the first youth symphony orchestra of over 70 young musicians founded in Russia, honored in 2014 to play at Coventry Cathedral and Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Twin-City movement. Under the direction of Yuriy Ilinov, the orchestra also carries out many other important peace-making projects, such as the world premiere in Russian of the Theresienstadt Opera "Brundibar" in the Russian city of Beslan, etc.
As a pianist, he wins first and second prizes in 11 competitions, including the 4th Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg (2004). He is also extremely active as a chamber musician, has numerous recordings on CD and for television.
He tours intensively in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Argentina, Ecuador, South Korea, Bulgaria, etc.
As a pianist, he graduated from the Volgograd State Institute of Arts and Culture (2004), and as a symphonic and opera conductor – from the State Conservatory in St. Petersburg (2011). He is currently completing postgraduate studies in conducting at the Conservatory "F. Liszt' in Weimar, Germany.
He holds a doctorate in linguistics with his thesis "Phonetic characteristics of song speech" (2007).