The conductor

Arman Simonyan was born in Leninakan, currently Gyumri, Armenia, where he started his musical education at the age of four.  He moved to Moscow together with his family, after the terrible earthquake that Armenia suffered in 1988, where he pursued his musical education. In 1990 Arman was accepted as a member of the charitable foundation 'New Names.' In 1993 he was admitted to the College of Music attached to world-renowned Moscow Conservatoire. He then studied at the Moscow Conservatoire P.I. Tchaikovsky where he graduated in 2002. Throughout his academic career, he was the orchestra leader at the Conservatoire and the Hermitage Chamber Orchestra, the latter under direction of A. Utkin. He also completed a teaching course at the College of Music under the Moscow Conservatory and he was an assistant of M. Iashvily at the Moscow Conservatory.

 

Among others, Arman had the opportunity to work with musicians like N. Boyarskaya, M. Kesselman, Z. Shikhmursaeva, M. Glesarova, M. Iashvily, V. Spivakov, G. Roshdestvensky, Z. Mehta and L. Maazel. 

 

Arman is one of the youngest violinists to ever be selected by the highly respected Moscow National Radio Orchestra, which at the time was under the direction of S. Skripka. He has performed as a soloist with the Moscow State Orchestra, Moscow Conservatoire Orchestra, the Dubna Symphonic Orchestra, the Jukovsky Symphonic Orchestra, the 'Amadeus' Chamber Orchestra as well as with the Cantilena Chamber Orchestra and the Akasha Chamber Orchestra. He has participated in music festivals in Russia, Korea, Cyprus, Mexico and Belgium. 

 

In October 2002 Arman moved to Brussels. He is teaching in the youth academy in Dworp (Halle, Belgium), at the Komitas music school (Brussels), as well as at the European School of Brussels in Uccle, where he is also the conductor of the orchestra. In addition to his teaching work he has continued to perform. His performances include playing in the Spirale Piano Trio which was nominated as 2004 laureate of the competition 'Jong Talent 2004' by Doctor Honoris Causa, Philippe Herreweghe and DeFilarmonie van Vlaanderen. In 2006 he was awarded the certificate of honour for many years of performing music, and for making a great contribution to the development of art in the Moscow region and Gyumri and Yerevan in Armenia.