Born in Beirut, Maestro George Pehlivanian’s path in music began with piano and violin lessons at the age of three and six respectively. In 1975, he emigrated to Los Angeles with his family and went on to study conducting
with Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel and Ferdinand Leitner. After being awarded the Diploma di Merito from the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Mr. Pehlivanian in 1991, was crowned unanimously by the International Jury, the
Grand Prize of the Besançon Conducting Competition. For six decades, Pehlivanian remained the first and only American to receive this honor in one of the most respected competitions in the world of Conducting.
Since then Maestro Pehlivanian has consolidated his reputation as one of the leading conductors of his generation. On the concert-platform he has led many of the world’s leading orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia, Israel Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Leipzig
Gewandhaus, NDR Hamburg , Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra Nazionale della RAI Torino, the BBC Philharmonic, Bambergern Symphoniker, the Czech Philharmonic, the Norddeutsche, Hessische and Südwetsdeutsche Runfunk Symphony Orchestras, Saarländisches Staatsorchester, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande,
Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Orquesta Nacional de España, Nationaal Orkest van België, Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo, Orquesta Radio Television de
España, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and many others. In North America he has conducted the Houston, Montreal, Baltimore, Cincinnati,
Indianapolis, St. Paul, Buffalo, Rochester, Honolulu, Puerto Rico, Vancouver, Ottawa, Quebec, Toronto and the Pacific Symphony Orchestras. He has also worked with the Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Fedosseyev Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Japan Virtuoso Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Qatar Philharmonic, Quingdao and Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestras. In Winter of 2017 Maestro Pehlivanian made history as the first conductor of Armenian descent to conduct the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey in Ankara.
Equally at home in the Operatic World as in the Symphonic, Mr. Pehlivanian has conducted leading opera companies of both Europe and the United States, including performances of CARMEN for the Long Beach Opera, California, JENUFA, BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, and ERNANI for the New Israeli Opera, LA TRAVIATA at the Mariinsky, St. Petersburg, TOSCA at Grand Theatre de Bordeaux and St. Etienne, the Dutch premiere of RIDERS TO THE SEA in Rotterdam, LA VOIX HUMAINE at the Cite de la Musique, Paris, OTELLO, CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA and GIANNI SCHICCHI at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, PIQUE DAME and ANDREA CHENIER at the Teatro Lirico, Cagliari, LE DAMNATION DE FAUST at Teatro San Carlo, Napoli and Teatro Regio, Parma, the world premieres of LE JOUR DES MEURTRES by Pierre Thilloy for l’Opéra-Théâtre de Metz and SETTE STORIE PER LASCIARE IL MONDO by Marco Betta as well as a critically acclaimed new production of BORIS
GODUNOV for Teatro Massimo di Palermo.
He has collaborated with the Best. Some of the renowned artists include : Maxim Vengerov, Leonidas Kavakos, Vadim Repim, Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell, Janine Jansen, Misha Maisky, Gidon Kremer, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gil
Shaham, Arcadi Volodos, Emmanuel Ax, Lynn Harrell, Maurice Andre, Evelyn Glennie, Andre Watts, Mirella Freni, Ruggero Raimondi, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, Ferrucio Furlanetto, Leona Mitchell, Leo Nucci, Denyce Graves,
Vladimir Galuzin, Bernarda Fink, Marjana Lipovsek and countless more of the world’s highest calibre soloists/artists.
Maestro Pehlivanian was asked to become the Chief Conductor and Artistic
Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic (2005-2008) and has held many Principal Guest Conductor positions with various orchestras, such as: Residentie Orkest of The Hague, Wiener Kammerorchester, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari,
and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestras. He has appeared at many of
the world’s most important International Music Festivals, including the Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino, White Nights of Saint Petersburg, Aix-en-Province, Mito Milan, Radio France de Montpellier, Jeunesse Musicale Vienna, Festival Bruckner of Linz, Verdi Festival di Parma, Rávena, Aspen, San Sebastien, Santander, Ravello, Madrid, Cannes MIDEM, El Escorial, Ljubljana, Granada, Osaka, and Kyoto. His discography includes a double CD release on Virgin Classics/EMI with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, recordings for BMG with the London Philharmonic, the world premiere recording of music by Zhukov under
CHANDOS with the Residentie Orchestra, works by Rodrigo with the Orquesta Nacional de España STUDIO SM, Liszt’s complete works for piano and orchestra with Louis Lortie and the Residentie Orchestra for Chandos,
receiving special praise by Gramophone Magazine. Specialist in interpreting today’s music, Maestro Pehlivanian’s recording of Christian Jost’s music for Coviello was received with great enthusiasm. Pehlivanian’s
latest CD release under the label of IBS Classical is the legendary ‘Leningrad’ Symphony of Shostakovich, recorded with the ‘Joven Orquesta Nacional de España’, which he has regularly conducted on European Tours
for the past 20 years already. This recording took special notice, since it was the first time a Spanish Orchestra has ever recorded the ‘Leningrad’ Symphony in history. In 2011 George Pehlivanian founded the Touquet International Music Masters in France, in 2012, Maestro Pehlivanian became Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) and in
2013 he became the Director of the Postgraduate Conducting department at the Higher School of Music Education ‘Katarina Gurska’ in Madrid. Since 2020, Maestro Pehlivanian founded the Pehlivanian Opera Academy in Bled, Slovenia.
