MIKAEL MALUNTSYAN (1903-1973)

Conductor/Cellist/Pedagogue/People’s Artist of the RA. Professor.
Worked with Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor in 1945-1960 and in 1966-1967.

Maestro Maluntsyan was trained as cellist at Tbilisi Conservatory (class of Professor K.Mignar), but later, in 1935, he graduated from Moscow Conservatory, where he studied conducting under Professor Ginsburg.
Maluntsyan taught cello and chamber orchestra in 1920s.  He trained well-known Armenian conductors – Rafael Mangasaryan and David Khanjian. He was the conductor of opera studio of Moscow conservatory from 1934 to 1945. In 1945 he was back to Yerevan and continued teaching opera-symphony conducting at Yerevan conservatory and leading the chair of orchestra instruments.
As a Principal Conductor of the APO he was able to reestablish the orchestra by inviting new musicians, after musicians’ loss in the years of the World War II. He greatly contributed to the development of individual creative perspectives of the Orchestra. Maluntsyan was the first interpreter of many works of Armenian composers premiered by the orchestra. He also played major role in popularization of European classical orchestral repertoire in Armenia. Maestro Maluntsyan gave podium to many prominent conductors, giving the orchestra an opportunity to discover different approaches to music. During his two tenures many famous musicians performed in Yerevan together with the APO.
His era was also marked with touring throughout the former USSR, performing in concert halls of Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), the Baltic republics, Ukraine and Caucasus.