Conductor
Biography
A San Francisco piano prodigy who made his debut with the city's symphony at eleven, Constantine Orbelian — of Armenian and Russian descent, and nephew of the composer Konstantin Orbelyan — was appointed in 1991 as Music Director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, becoming the first American to hold such a post with a Russian ensemble. He has partnered Dmitri Hvorostovsky in recordings, along with Renée Fleming, Sondra Radvanovsky and Lawrence Brownlee. Chief Conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra since 2014, he led Yerevan's opera house from 2016 and in 2021 became Music Director and Principal Conductor of New York City Opera. In August 2025 he judged the International Ferenc Fricsay Conducting Competition in Szeged. The training behind that early start was at the Juilliard School.