He graduated from the Music Conservatory in Bucharest and became a well-known violinist, performing in concerts all over Romania and also abroad.
Having decided to become a conductor, he was granted a scholarship in the field, to École Normale de Musique in Paris, France, where he studied with Pierre Dervaux.
Ilarion Ionescu-Galați played with soloists such as Lazar Berman, Radu Lupu, Fazıl Say, Josu de Solaun Soto, Felicia Filip, Daniil Shafran, Igor Oistrakh, Valery Oistrach, Viktor Pikaisen, Rudolf Kerrer, Ion Voicu, Magda Tagliaferro, İdil Biret, Ayla Erduran, Sabine Meyer, Costas Cotsiolis, Aris Garoufalis, Theodore Kerkezos and several others.
His discography contains many titles including Gioachino Rossini (all Sei sonate a quattro), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Fifth Symphony), and Antonín Dvořák (Seventh Symphony, with the Tokyo Symphonic Orchestra), Niccolò Paganini, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Franz Liszt.
[1] He received medals, honors and assorted prizes and diplomas in Romania, Turkey, Greece and several other countries.