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The Armenian conductor, Ruben Gazarian, began his musical education quite early. He was given his first violin lessons by his father at the age of 4. He was educated at the music college P.I. Tchaikovsky and studied further at the National Conservatoire in Yerevan, where one of his teachers was Ruben Aharonian, the first violinist of the famous Borodin Quartet. He also attended master-classes of renowned musicians such as Joseph Silverstein, Janos Starker, Valery Gradow and Eduard Schmieder.
Ruben Gazarian's career as a performer started in 1983, with recitals, chamber music and soloist performances with chamber and symphonic orchestras. In 1990 he became the violinist of the piano trio of the State Radio of Armenia - the youngest violinist ever in the ensemble’s history. In addition to its numerous concerts at home and abroad, the trio made a great number of recordings for radio and television. In 1991 he was appointed, by special contract, first violinist and soloist of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia. In October 1992 he entered the Leipzig Conservatoire (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy) for a postgraduate violin study, concluded in 1995 with the obligatory concert performance, after which he registered for the curriculum of orchestra conducting, graduating in May 1998 with first-class honors.
From 1993 to 1998, Ruben Gazarian was employed as first concertmaster of the Westsächsisches Symphonieorchester (Symphonic Orchestra of Western Saxony). In 1999, he was appointed principal conductor of this orchestra after a long selection process, thus becoming Germany’s youngest principal conductor, a position he kept until the summer of 2002. He also conducted numerous live and studio recordings for the Hessischer Rundfunk, the Südwestrundfunk, the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Deutschlandradio, the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Radio Svizzera Italiana, Radio France Musique, Danmarks Radio (DR) and others. Shortly before taking up his position in Heilbronn in September 2002, Ruben Gazarian became a laureate of the first “Sir Georg Solti” international conducting competition in Frankfurt am Main, as one of three finalists chosen among 177 candidates from 39 different countries.
Ruben Gazarian was appointed musical director and principal conductor of the renowned Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn at the start of the season of 2002-2003. He has been appointed to this position on the basis of unanimous recommendations by the orchestra and the appointment board. He has since then considerably developed the orchestra’s range by adding romantic, early modern and contemporary composers to its traditional repertoire and by regularly extending the performing body to symphonic size.
Furthermore, at the beginning of 2015 Ruben Gazarian assumed the additional position of Artistic Director of the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt. In the same manner, this appointment arose from the unanimous wish of the orchestra, its management and the cultural representatives of the city. In May 2017, the contract between the Georgian Chamber Orchestra and Ruben Gazarian was extended by another three years. In advance, both the orchestra and the advisory board expressed their unanimous support for the renewal of the contract.
As guest conductor Ruben Gazarian has directed such renowned orchestras as the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, HR-Sinfonieorchester Franfurt, Hamburger Symphoniker, the Staatsorchester Kassel, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurter Museumsorchester, Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie Herford, Orchestre National de Lyon, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Orchester Rishon LeZion (Tel Aviv Opera Orchetsra), the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and Zürcher Kammerorchester.
Ruben Gazarian works successfully with acclaimed musicians such as Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, Julia Fischer, Hilary Hahn, Katia & Marielle Labèque, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Sabine Meyer, Viktoria Mullova, Sergey Nakariakov, Gerhard Oppitz, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Frank Peter Zimmermann, the Beaux Arts Trio, the Gewandhaus-Quartett and several others.
The rich discography of the past years documents the extent of Ruben Gazarian's repertoire and the quality of his interpretations, born of meticulous rehearsal work, profound emotional understanding and firm mastery over a broad range of periods and styles. He also conducted numerous live and studio recordings for the Hessischer Rundfunk, the Südwestrundfunk, the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Deutschlandradio, the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Radio Svizzera Italiana, Radio France Musique, Danmarks Radio (DR) and others. |
