Emmanuel Tjeknavorian

Emmanuel
Tjeknavorian

Born in Vienna in 1995, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian grew up in a family of musicians, took his first violin lessons at the age of five and two years later gave his first public performance. After initial studies with P. Haykazyan, A. Mkrtchyan and A. Winokurow, Gerhard Schulz has been his main teacher since 2011. In 2014, he began to study conducting with his father, Loris Tjeknavorian, and has taken part in masterclasses for young conductors in England and Italy. Emmanuel Tjeknavorian plays a 1698 violin by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, generously loaned to him by a benefactor from the Beare's International Violin Society in London.

Celebrated as an "exceptional talent" (Der Tagesspiegel), violinist and conductor Emmanuel Tjeknavorian has quickly become one of the most sought after musicians of his generation. Highlights of the 19/20 season include debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and re-invitations from the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra and ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. He will perform alongside conductors such as Alain Altinoglu, Christoph Eschenbach, Jakub Hrůša, Markus Poschner and Yuri Temirkanov. Furthermore, as the youngest ever Artist in Residence of the Vienna Musikverein, he will have his own subscription series at the famed hall throughout the season and returns to the Konzerthaus Dortmund as one of the „Junge Wilde".

As a conductor he will debut in the Vienna Konzerthaus with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and will lead the Göttinger Symphony Orchestra, Württembergische Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Vienna Concert-Verein and Albanian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra, performing symphonies by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler. In February 2020, his second album, featuring the violin concertos by Jean Sibelius and by his father, Loris Tjeknavorian, with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Pablo Gonzales will be released as part of a new exclusive contract with Berlin Classics. His debut album "Solo", released by Sony Classical, received great critical acclaim and won the OPUS Klassik in 2018.

Emmanuel first came to international attention when he won the prize for the best interpretation of the Sibelius Violin Concerto as well as Second Prize at the Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in 2015. Since then, he has received invitations from world-renowned orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, London Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra Washington, working with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Adam Fischer, Edward Gardner, Nicholas Milton, Kristiina Poska, Michael Sanderling and John Storgårds.

As a regular guest at the most important summer festivals, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian won the LOTTO Sponsorship Prize of the Rheingau Music Festival, as well as the NORDMETALL-Ensemble Prize from the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival (with his piano-partner Maximilian Kromer). He also gave concerts at the Andermatt Swiss Alps Classics, the Enescu Festival, the Grafenegg Festival and at the Sankt Gallen Festival. Further highlights included performances at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg and the Festival de Paques in Aix en Provence, where he played on Mozart's own "Costa" violin. As a "Rising Star" of the European Concert Hall Organisation, "Great Talent" of the Vienna Konzerthaus and a protege of the Orpheum Foundation in Zurich, he has performed in Europe's most prestigious concert halls. Since September 2017 he has hosted his own radio show "Der Klassik-Tjek" on Vienna's Radio Klassik Stephansdom. Numerous media have reported on the young Viennese musician, including Titel, Thesen, Temperamente and the Tagesschau (ARD), Capriccio (BR), Kulturzeit (3sat), ORF2 and Stars von morgen with Rolando Villazon (ARTE).