Pavel Baleff is a Bulgarian conductor. He conducted his first concert in 1988 at the age of 18. The recipient of the Bulgarian Radio prize for best young musician in 1993, Baleff also won first prize in the Carl Maria von Weber International Competition in Munich in 1996. Among other honors, he won the Bad Homburg award for conducting in 2003. Baleff has been the musical director of the Dresden Chamber Opera since 1998, and in 1999 he became the principal conductor of the Rostock Opera. Since 2002, he has served as principal conductor and music director of the opera in Halle, Germany. In 2012, Baleff won the International Classical Music Award, and the German Record Critics Award for a recording with Krassimira Stoyanova and the Munich Radio Orchestra. Baleff has also conducted the National Opera in Hanover, the Berlin Comic Opera, and the Semperoper Dresden. In 2012 he conducted Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in Sofia. He has conducted the the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra, and other orchestras across Europe. Baleff has performed with such stars as Edita Gruberová, Krassimira Stoyanova, Thomas Hampson, Vesselina Kasarova, Ramon Vargas, and Diana Damrau. He has recorded for Genuin, Orfeo, and Bella Musica.