Artistic Director and Principal Conductor: Hovhannes Tchekidjian

The Academic State Choir of Armenia was formed in 1937. Hovhannes Tchekidjian has been an Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Choir since September 1961.
The Academic State Choir of Armenia always performs its programs in the original languages (more than 27 in total) and its programs include all major Requiems, Oratorios, Cantatas and Masses as well as other large and small works by such composers as Bach, Haendel, Mozart, Verdi, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rossini, Wagner, Schubert, Bellini, Berlioz, Gounod, Fauré, Smetana, Mendelssohn, Gershwin and others.
Amongst its highest achievements are the first prize at the Choral Contest of the USSR and the “Grand Prix” of the Paris Academy for the choral recordings.
The press worldwide, such as the Le Figaro, New York Times, The Boston Globe, Le Monde, Independent, Paris Mach, Meridional, Los Angeles Times, La revue du Liban, and others have repeatedly praised the achievements and the professionalism of the Choir and its Artistic Director Hovhannes Tchekidjian.
Under the baton of maestro Tchekidjian, the Choir has performed 97 times in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), mostly at the Shostakovich Hall and over 77 of them were performed with the participation of the famous Mravinskiy Symphony Orchestra.
The Choir had the honor to perform at such worldwide famous halls as the Palais des Congrès, the La Sale Pleyel, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées of Paris, as well as the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Westminster Methodist Center Hall of London, the Salle Smetana of Prague, Moscow Conservatory Hall etc.
Among the recent achievements of the Choir is the “Prix du Public” of the International Festival in Montreux in 1999.
The Choir concerts were attended by such famous artists as Irina Arkhipova, Elena Obraztsova, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Vladimir Atlantov, Maria Biesu, Paata Burchuladze, Nikolai Petrov, Lyubov Kazarnovskaya and many others.