Serhiy Salov was born in Ukraine. It's in his native city of Donetsk that his vast musical training began, extending well beyond the technique of the piano to composition, improvisation, musical theory, as well as study of foreign languages, a subject which provides another passionate outlet for his highly expressive nature. M. Salov gave his first public concert at age 11, playing Grieg’s piano concerto with the Ukrainian National Orchestra, and his first solo recital a year later at the Philharmonic Hall of his native city.
At age 15, Serhiy Salov left for Germany to study at the Musikhochschule Freiburg with the Michel Béroff. Having graduated, he then moved to London for another four years, to complete a masters Degree as well as the Solo Recital Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
M. Salov has a broad and wide ranging performing experience in chamber music, recital and concerto repertoire and has performed with such outstanding musicians as Leonard Slatkin, Kent Nagano, Maxim Vengerov, Christopher Warren-Green, Lawrence Foster, Jacques Lacombe and Yannik Nezet-Seguin, and major orchestras like the Montreal, Salt Lake City, Hallé, Tokyo and Berlin Symphonies, l'Orchestre National de Radio France, the Philharmonia, the Philadelphia and the City of London Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
Serhiy Salov's musical circuit is replete with awards and Prizes: three international First Prizes (Dudley 2000, Épinal 201 and Montréal 2004), two second (Gina Bachauer 2010 and Cincinnati 2012) and three Third Prizes (Long-Thibaud 2001, Hamamatsu 2003 and Tromso 2009), as well as the Audience Prizes in Montreal and Tromso.
Fascinated by the dimension of a large symphony orchestra, M. Salov has created solo piano versions of some of the seminal works of the post-romantic symphonic repertoire. He is one of the very few pianists to arrange, interpret and record his own version of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring". Among his other arranged works are the solo piano version of the complete "Pétrouchka" ballet as well as that of Debussy's "Nocturnes" and Moussorgsky’s ‘Night on a Bare Mountain’.
Serhiy's first commercial CD, Shostakovich's circle (Analekta, 2007), showcasing the highly sophisticated albeit rarely performed piano concertos by the master's acolytes Galynin and Ustvolskaya, received the Prix Opus for best classical recording of the year. His most recent CD, The Sacred Spring of Slavs" (Analekta, 2010), was released to great public and critical acclaim.