· Classical
Armenian conductor named one of the Top 30 Professionals of the year by Musical America
The Musical America, the oldest musical magazine in the USA, announced the Top 30 Professionals of the Year, including Armenian conductor Tigran Arakelyan.
"Most of the names in the following pages will not be familiar—but they are decidedly praiseworthy. This year’s Musical America Top 30 Professionals are the entrepreneurs, the worker bees, the creative minds that ensure the health of the artform and its essential value in our lives, now and for generations to come. They launch and run community music schools specializing in working with minority youth; they raise money for off-the-wall opera projects in off-the-wall spaces bringing in new audiences; they compose music for regional symphony orchestras; and they commission and record solo pieces and donate the proceeds to environmental groups, from the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Alliance to the World Wildlife Fund," Susan Elliott, editor of the Magazine writes.
Tigran Arakelyan is an Armenian-American conductor, executive director, radio host, and podcaster. He moved to the U.S. when he was 11, his family becoming part of the bustling Armenian-American community in Glendale, CA. He was born with a respiratory condition; his parents, also musicians, believed playing a wind instrument would help, and suggested he pick up the flute. "But many can’t imagine classical music in Seattle without Arakelyan. Recently named one of 425 Business magazine’s 40 under 40, Arakelyan has conducted numerous regional orchestras in Washington and California; he took the Federal Way Youth Symphony on three tours to South Korea in 2014, 2017, and 2019, and is known for finding unusual venues for all of his projects, from bars to cafes to homeless shelters. On his podcast, Let’s Talk Off the Podium, he has interviewed a huge variety of notables including George Walker, Vijay Iyer, Evelyn Glennie, JoAnn Falletta, Sharon Isbin, and Christopher Theofanidis.
Today, Arakelyan devotes virtually all of his energies to Music Works Northwest, a community music school in Bellevue, WA, that provides lessons, music therapy, and summer programs to individuals and schools, offering tuition assistance to the former and free instruction to the latter, as well as gratis public concerts by its professional faculty. This may be his most personal project yet—a way of giving back" Hannah Edgar writes.
"Most of the names in the following pages will not be familiar—but they are decidedly praiseworthy. This year’s Musical America Top 30 Professionals are the entrepreneurs, the worker bees, the creative minds that ensure the health of the artform and its essential value in our lives, now and for generations to come. They launch and run community music schools specializing in working with minority youth; they raise money for off-the-wall opera projects in off-the-wall spaces bringing in new audiences; they compose music for regional symphony orchestras; and they commission and record solo pieces and donate the proceeds to environmental groups, from the Sierra Club and the Rainforest Alliance to the World Wildlife Fund," Susan Elliott, editor of the Magazine writes.
Tigran Arakelyan is an Armenian-American conductor, executive director, radio host, and podcaster. He moved to the U.S. when he was 11, his family becoming part of the bustling Armenian-American community in Glendale, CA. He was born with a respiratory condition; his parents, also musicians, believed playing a wind instrument would help, and suggested he pick up the flute. "But many can’t imagine classical music in Seattle without Arakelyan. Recently named one of 425 Business magazine’s 40 under 40, Arakelyan has conducted numerous regional orchestras in Washington and California; he took the Federal Way Youth Symphony on three tours to South Korea in 2014, 2017, and 2019, and is known for finding unusual venues for all of his projects, from bars to cafes to homeless shelters. On his podcast, Let’s Talk Off the Podium, he has interviewed a huge variety of notables including George Walker, Vijay Iyer, Evelyn Glennie, JoAnn Falletta, Sharon Isbin, and Christopher Theofanidis.
Today, Arakelyan devotes virtually all of his energies to Music Works Northwest, a community music school in Bellevue, WA, that provides lessons, music therapy, and summer programs to individuals and schools, offering tuition assistance to the former and free instruction to the latter, as well as gratis public concerts by its professional faculty. This may be his most personal project yet—a way of giving back" Hannah Edgar writes.
