People’s Artist of Russia (1998), Professor at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music (since 1996), and Academician of the International Academy of Creativity (since 2004).
He graduated from the Gnesin State Music and Pedagogical Institute in 1971, piano class of Professor T. D. Gutman.
He is a member of the Union of Composers (since 1983), a member of the Jazz Music Commission of the Moscow Union of Composers, Chair of the Jazz Music Commission, and a member of the Presidium of the Moscow Musical Society. He has appeared in numerous television programmes as a performer and expert.
Igor Bril is one of the founders of professional jazz education in the USSR. In 1974 he became Chair of the Jazz and Popular Music Cycle Commission at the Gnesin State Music College. From 1993 to 2013 he was Head of the Department of Instrumental Jazz Performance at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.
Many of his students have become laureates of All‑Russian and international competitions, including Ivan Farmakovsky, Alexei Chernakov, Evgeny Lebedev, Nikolai Sidorenko, Andrei Marukhin, Vladislav Dubrovin, and others.
Bril’s extensive teaching and performing experience is reflected in his scholarly and methodological works, which help young musicians master the art of jazz improvisation. He is the author of the first Russian textbook Practical Course in Jazz Improvisation for Piano (1979), which has been reprinted several times and remains relevant today.
He has organised international and All‑Russian festivals and competitions and has served as Chair of juries, including the Festos festival (1996–2014) at the Central House of Arts Workers in Moscow, the All‑Russian festival‑competition for young performers Jazz Baptism in Sochi, and festivals and competitions in Rostov‑on‑Don, Arkhangelsk, and Donetsk. He is permanent Chair of the jury of the competition Royal in Jazz in Moscow.
He regularly gives masterclasses and creative workshops in many regions of Russia.
Bril has toured extensively, performing in Russia, the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Indonesia, India, Israel, and other countries.
Among his stage partners have been Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, John Fraser, Adam Makowicz, Michael Brecker, Georgy Garanian, German Lukyanov, Alexei Kuznetsov, Alexei Kozlov, and others.
His discography includes several LPs released in the 1970s–1980s by the Melodiya label and more than thirty CDs issued in Russia, the USA, Switzerland, and Israel.
He is the author of music for theatre productions and films, including Zangezur, Puss in Boots, Serse, and others.
Bril is a laureate of the Fourth All‑Union Variety Artists Competition (1971) and of international competitions in Havana, Tbilisi, and elsewhere.
He is a Holder of the Order of Honour (2004) and a laureate of the Moscow City Prize (2004). In 2004 a star bearing his name was laid on the Stars Square in Moscow.
In 2010 he received a Letter of Appreciation from the President of the Russian Federation «For services to culture and many years of dedicated work».
