Emmanuel Tjeknavorian has served as Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano since September 2024. In his first season with the orchestra, he also conducted it in international performances at the Rheingau Music Festival and at the KKL Luzern. Alongside his work in Milan, the 2025/26 season will see him appear with the Orchestra Rai Torino, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and in return engagements with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana, Dresdner Philharmonie, Grazer Philharmoniker, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He will also make his operatic debuts with "Un ballo in maschera" at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and in "Le nozze di Figaro" directed by Claus Guth at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
In recent seasons, he has conducted a. o. the Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester, Bremer Philharmoniker, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, DR Symfoniorkestret Copenhagen, Dresdner Philharmonie, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Orchestra della Toscana, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE. He also led the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance of Johann Strauss’ operetta "Die Fledermaus" at the Musikverein Graz.
Prior to embarking on his career as a conductor, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian made a name for himself internationally as a solo violinist, having performed in the world’s most renowned concert halls alongside many of the leading musicians of our time. He plays a violin by Antonio Stradivari (Cremona 1698), on generous loan from a patron of the Beare’s International Violin Society.
Emmanuel Tjeknavorian is a winner of the Abbiati Prize and an OPUS Klassik Award, and has released several recordings as a violinist and conductor. Since 2017, he has hosted the monthly radio show "Der Klassik-Tjek" on Vienna's Radio Klassik Stephansdom. During the show, he discusses classical music with well-known personalities from other fields and demonstrates his passion for finding ways to make music accessible to a wider audience. He is also involved in numerous projects promoting young musicians. For several years, he has maintained a close collaboration with the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, the ensemble of German music schools.