Levon Ambartsumian

Levon Ambartsumian is Regent's and Franklin Professor Professor of Violin at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Prior to coming to UGA in 1995, he was a Visiting Professor at Indiana University School of Music, replacing legendary American Violin Teacher Joseph Gingold.  He also taught at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1978 where he taught for 15 years.

Ambartsumian is an alumnus of the Moscow Central Music School and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where his teachers were Felix Andrievski, Yury Yankelevitch, Leonid Kogan and Igor Bezrodny. In 1977 he became the First Prize winner of Zagreb International Violin Competition headed by Henryk Szeryng. Two years later he was a prize-winner of the Montreal International Competition, and in 1981 he won the All-Union Violin Competition in Riga.

In 1988 Amartsumian was distinguished as "Honored Artist of Armenia," and was named "Honored Artist of Russia" in 1997. He has performed in the major cities of the United States of America, Russia, Eastern Europe, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, China, Japan, and South Korea, having collaborated as a soloist with conductors and composers such as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Maxim Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Alfred Schnittke, Karen Khachaturian, and many others.

In 1990 Ambartsumian founded the Moscow Chamber Orchestra ARCO which regularly performed in Russia and abroad and now resides in Athens, Georgia. Since its creation, Ambartsumian has led UGA's ARCO Chamber Orchestra, commercially releasing 15 CDs and has performing four times in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. In 2011, ARCO was invited to perform at La Fenice, the world famous Opera House in Venice, Italy.

As a recording artist, Ambartsumian has 50 commercially-released and internationally-distributed CD's including music by Wieniawski, Sarasate, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich, Strauss, Schnittke, Vasks, Bronner, Arutiunian and other contemporary composers. As a teacher, Ambartsumian has given master classes in Russia, Armenia, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Portugal and France.  His former students hold principal positions in major European orchestras in Germany, France, Portugal, Denmark, and the United States, as well as full time college teaching positions.

Ambartsumian's website

Levon Ambartsumian & ARCO Chamber Orchestra YouTube Channel

Watch the documentary ARCO in Venice, 2013 Merit Award winner, Georgia Association of Broadcasters Awards

Fanfare Interview and Review 2019

Fanfare Interview and Review 2020

Fanfare Interview and Review 2021