Conductor Ilan Volkov has had a long tenure as the conductor and principal guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Volkov specializes in music of the early 20th century, contemporary music, and little-performed works of various periods.

The son of Alexander Volkov, a concert pianist, Ilan Volkov was born on September 8, 1976, in Tel Aviv, Israel. He took to conducting early on, studying with Mendi Rodan at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem, and moving on to the Royal Academy of Music in London. At 19, Volkov was named Young Conductor in Association with the BBC Northern Sinfonia. Later, he served as the conductor of its youth orchestra and that of the London Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Volkov scored a major breakthrough in 1999 when conductor Seiji Ozawa named him the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Volkov made guest appearances with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra during this period and was named its chief conductor in 2003. At the time, he was the youngest chief conductor of a BBC orchestra. After a three-year term, Volkov stayed on as the principal guest conductor, a position he has continued to hold. Volkov served for three years as the principal conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in the early 2010s, leading that group in its debut appearance at the Proms, and he has made guest conducting appearances with prominent orchestras worldwide, including the National Symphony in Washington, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris. In 2012, Volkov founded the Tectonics Festival, which promotes new music with annual festivals in various locations that have included Adelaide, Australia, New York, and Athens. With violinist Ilya Gringolts, he founded the I&I Foundation, aimed at furthering the growth of new music. In Tel Aviv, he was the co-founder of the Levontin 7 venue, which stresses the inclusion of a variety of genres.

Volkov has recorded more than 20 albums, many of them made for the Hyperion label and featuring the BBC Scottish Symphony. His releases have included such rarities as the Chamber Symphony of Nikolai Roslavets. In 2013, Volkov joined pianist Steven Osborne for a recording of the complete music for piano and orchestra of Stravinsky. Volkov returned in 2021 with a world premiere recording of Martin Suckling's This Departing Landscape with the BBC Scottish Symphony on the NMC label. ~ James Manheim, Rovi