Emmanuel Tjeknavorian

Born in Vienna in 1995, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian came to conducting early — his father is the composer and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian — while making his first career as a violinist. He studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Gerhard Schulz, reached the final round of the Fritz Kreisler Competition in 2014 and took second prize at the Sibelius Competition the following year, and plays a Stradivari of 1698. Since September 2024 he has been Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, and he conducts across Europe and North America, taking on his first opera productions in Italy alongside the concert repertoire. He began his musical education at five, and from the 2022/23 season conducting became his main work; a residency at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in the summer of 2022 brought him the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Potsdam Chamber Academy, and he has also conducted the Munich Symphony and the Bruckner Orchester Linz. His recordings include the Brahms and Sibelius violin concertos and, in 2021, a first disc as conductor with Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and the Tonkunstler Orchestra, and he has won an OPUS Klassik award. Since 2017 he has presented a monthly programme, Der Klassik-Tjek, on Radio Klassik Stephansdom.