Emmanuel Tjeknavorian

Born in Vienna in 1995 into a family of professional musicians, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian grew up in Austria and Armenia and began playing the violin at the age of five. From 2011 to 2018, he studied with Gerhard Schulz of the Alban Berg Quartet at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna; from 2014 onward, he also studied conducting with his father, Loris Tjeknavorian, and attended masterclasses in England and Italy. Early in his career, he won prizes at major international violin competitions, including the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna and the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki. He received the Szymon Goldberg Award, was named a “Rising Star” by the European Concert Hall Organisation and a “Great Talent” of the Vienna Konzerthaus, and in 2018 was honored as “Newcomer of the Year” by Opus Klassik for his recording Solo. Tjeknavorian has appeared with such leading orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. He soon focused primarily on conducting, a direction he now follows almost exclusively, and returns to the violin today at Riccardo Chailly’s request. In 2024, Tjeknavorian assumed the position of Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, and he has additionally led the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his debut at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma last September with Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro; in May 2026, he will debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. In 2025, the Italian Music Critics’ Association honored him as Conductor of the Year with the Premio Abbiati. Tjeknavorian has hosted the monthly radio program “Der Klassik-Tjek” on Radio Klassik Stephansdom since 2017.

February 2026