Born in 2001 into a family of musicians, Ilan Zajtmann began studying piano with his father at the age of 3. Between auditions and competitions, he became familiar with the stage at an early age. Recognized for his burgeoning talent, he entered the conservatory of his hometown of Lyon, and in 2014 he began studying under Florent Boffard at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon. In 2017, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Paris, where he studied with Roger Muraro and Marie-Josèphe Jude and received a Master’s degree in piano. He further honed his skills under the tutelage of Igor Lazko at the Schola Cantorum.
Ilan obtained a Master’s degree in piano performance in 2022 and a Master of Musical Arts in piano performance in 2023 at the Yale University School of Music, where he studied under Boris Berman and Boris Slutsky. He currently studies under Célimène Daudet and Michel Dalberto.
Since his first recital in Strasbourg in 2010, Ilan has continuously performed on stage. He was only 10 years old when he was invited to Salvador, Brazil to play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Neojiba ensemble, under the direction of Ricardo Castro, at the prestigious Teatro Castro Alves. A prolific soloist and chamber musician, Ilan is regularly invited to participate in festivals in his native France and abroad, in countries including Switzerland, Luxembourg, the United States, Djibouti, Ethiopia, the UK, Portugal, and Italy. He founded the Trio Solaris in 2019 with cellist Cyprien Keiser and violinist Elena Cotrone and regularly collaborates with a number of musicians, including Marie-Aude Melliès, Nathan Mierdl, Iris Scialom, Grégoire Torossian, Paul Zientara, Jérôme Ducros and Georgi Anichenko. He has performed in venues including the Philharmonie du Luxembourg, the Salle Molière in Lyon, the Salle Cortot and l’Église de la Madeleine in Paris, the Palais des Congrès in Tours, and the Theatre de Valence and performed in festivals including that of Les ClisSonnantes and Inter’Val.
Recognized for his artistry and musicianship, Ilan has won first prize at numerous international competitions, including the Alexandre Scriabine competition in Paris, the Montrond-les-Bains competition, the Aix-en-Provence competition, and the Liszt-Schumann-Mendelssohn competition and the Debussy & French Music competition in Geneva.
In 2020, Ilan Zajtmann recorded his first album, dedicated to the music of Frédéric Chopin, which received critical acclaim. Yves Riesel praised Zajtmann’s interpretations for their “profoundly moving personality” and “artistic refinement”: “You never get bored for a second […] above all you feel the fever and the care in his expression.” An excerpt from the album was featured on France Musique's Portraits de famille radio program, in which Philippe Cassard commented: "This pianist is a poet. [...] First and foremost, he is a born Chopinian. [...] So much sensitivity, taste and class. [...] Everything is linked. Everything is thought out from within: you can hear all the harmonies, and the left hand is extraordinary.” Cassard also praised Zajtmann’s artistry and “keen sense of storytelling” in a 2022 article published in L’Obs: "[Zajtmann’s] Chopin album […] astonishes by its maturity, in particular in its sublime Nocturne Op. 62 and Ballade n°2 Op. 38.”