Armenian youth conductor joins Russian orchestra for concert

The Armenian State Youth Orchestra’s chief conductor and artistic director, Sergey Smbatyan, on Thursday conducted a joint concert with the Moscow State Symphonic Orchestra (conductor Paul Kogan).

The program included Vocalise (Rakhmaninov), Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra (soloist: Andrey Gugnin) and Tchaykovsky’s Symphony No 4.

Yeakerina Polozhentseva, a Russian Culture Ministry official heading a department responsible for activities with guest performers, said their impressions from the concert were great. “It was interesting to listen how the orchestra performed. It isn’t the first time we are working with Sergey Smbatyan; we treat him very well, and he really met our expectations, as he always does,” she said after the concert, according to the Youth Orchestra’s press service.

The concert in Moscow is Smbatyan’s second foreign tour this year. On January 14, the Orchestra's musicians conducted the Korean Chamber Orchestra in a joint concert with the famous Hollywood star John Malkovich.

Founded in 1943, the Moscow State Symphonic Orchestra is one Russia’s the oldest and highly reputable orchestras. Paul Kogan’s conductorship (since 1989) marked a new era in its history. In the past 25 years, the orchestra has been on concert tours in over 59 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, South Korea, Australia, China etc.