Vahan Mardirossian (Armenia/France)

Vahan Mardirossian was born in Armenia and graduated with distinction from the Paris Conservatory in 1996. He enjoys a flourishing career as both conductor and piano soloist. For many years he was the Principal Conductor of the Caen Symphony Orchestra in France and Music Director of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (NCOA). Starting from the 2019/2020 season he is the chief conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. Simultaneously starting from 2021 he is the Musical Director of Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie.

Vahan Mardirossian is invited regularly as a guest conductor in Europe and Asia. His past engagements include concerts with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of the Pays de la Loire, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Chamber Soloists, the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, the “Amalgam” Orchestra (comprising select musicians from the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the SWR Baden-Baden Freiburg Symphony Orchestra), the Toulon Opera Orchestra, the orchestras of Douai and Cannes in France and the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. After a hugely successful debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014, he was invited to conduct the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in the 2014/2015 season. During the same season he conducted the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Real Orquestra Sinfonica de Sevilla, Philharmonie Südwestfalen and the Bulgarian National Orchestra. In 2017 he performed a piano recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall, led the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine on a tour of Japan performing Dvorak’s Symphony No.9 and returned to conduct the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the Suntory Hall. From 2016 to 2018 he gave his conducting debuts with the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Colonne, the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra and the Luxembourg Chamber Orchestra. In 2018 he conducted City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong at the Le French May Arts Festival and toured with the orchestra giving several concerts at the China Shanghai International Arts Festival. In 2019 he conducted the Philharmonie Südwestfalen and the Verdi Concert Choir Japan in Verdi’s Requiem at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and recorded a CD with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.

His guest engagements for the coming 2021/2022 season include concerts with the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice.

Vahan Mardirossian has had the privilege of collaborating with many internationally renowned soloists including Ivry Gitlis, Augustin Dumay, Lars Vogt, Richard Galliano, Sergei Babayan, Andreas Frölich, Giovanni Sollima, Alexander Hülshoff, Daishin Kashimoto, Teiko Maehashi, Boris Brovtzyn, Boris Andrianov, Alexander Markov, Pavel Vernikov, Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazy, Diemut Poppen, Svetlin Roussev, Brigitte Engerer, Xavier Phillips, Kun Woo Paik, Viktoria Postnikova, Sergei Nakaryakov, Gary Hoffman, Alexander Chaushian, Alexandra Soumm, Alexander Ghindin, Igor Tchetuev, Jacques Rouvier, Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabedian, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Marc Coppey, Nicolas Dautricourt, Stéphane Bechy, Guy Touvron, Roland Daugareil and André Cazalet.

His CDs include a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Stéphanie-Marie Degand and the Caen Symphony Orchestra and a recording of Music for Strings by Florentine Mulsant with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia.

Known internationally as a piano soloist, Vahan Mardirossian is often featured playing the concertos of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg or Shostakovich while simultaneously conducting the orchestra from the keyboard. As piano soloist he has performed under the direction of Maestros including Kurt Masur, Paavo Järvi, Yutaka Sado, John Axelrod and Yuri Ahronovitch.