Aram Gharabekian, Former conductor of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia passes away –


 Aram Gharabekian, Former conductor of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia passes away –

 

 

Armenia’s Ministry of Culture reports with deep sorrow that renowned conductor Aram Gharabekyan has died because of a sudden cardiac arrest in the United States. He was 58. 

The maestro had led the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia for 12 years.

 Aram Gharabekian (1955 July 7 Boston – 2014 January 11) was an Armenian conductor, former Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia. In 1983 he founded and until 1991 directed and conducted the Boston SinfoNova Orchestra.

 Mr. Gharabekian was formerly the Principal Guest Conductor of the NRCU Symphony Orchestra in Kiev. He led them in recording their first Compact Disc, featuring Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, which was released in 1996 on Russian Disc’s ,Audiophile Series,. Following a critically acclaimed guest appearance with the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra in 1991, Maestro Gharabekian was invited by the Ukrainian Minister of Culture to assume the position of Artistic Advisor and Conductor.

 Active as a guest conductor, Mr. Gharabekian has been the Principal Guest Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, and appeared with the Sinfonietta München. He has also led the Ukrainian National Symphony, the Ukrainian State Opera and Ballet, the West Ukrainian Philharmonic, Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Fresno Philharmonic, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra and Hangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. On New Year’s Eve in 1999 Mr. Gharabekian led an orchestra and chorus in Hangzhou, China of 300 musicians from 6 countries in a televised millennium celebration concert featuring Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

He graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston, then continued his postgraduate studies at Mainz University in Germany. He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in Italy, and in 1979 became one of a few conducting pupils of the famous Sergiu Celibidache in Germany.  Gharabekian also studied composition and conducting under Jacob Druckman and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts.


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