12–25
August
Yerevan · Armenia
Yerevan · Armenia
Yerevan · Armenia
Armenian State Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Raiskin studied in St. Petersburg, Amsterdam and Freiburg, first focusing on Viola and later conducting with Maestri such as Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Milan Horvat, Woldemar Nelson und Jorma Panula.
From the 2018/19 season Daniel Raiskin serves as Music Director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and has been appointed Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra starting the season 2020-2021. Since 2016/17 he is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent and near future engagements also include returns to Warsaw and Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestras, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Russian National Orchestra, Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra (Hague Philharmonic, NL), Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Raiskin served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife (between 2016-18) and as Chief Conductor of both, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz (2005-2016) and of the Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra in Lódz (2008-2015). His regular guest engagements include the Athens State Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Iceland Symphony, Japan Century Symphony, Malmö Symfoni Orkester, Mariinsky Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, National Symphony Orchestra Taiwan, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Osaka Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest, RTV Slovenia Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony, Slovenska Filharmonia Bratislava, Stavanger Symphony, State Academic Symphony of Russia „Svetlanov“, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Swedish Chamber and the Tonkünstler orchestras. His appearances in opera productions include Bizet’s “Carmen”, Shostakovich’s “The Nose” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. Among the major soloists with whom Daniel Raiskin has appeared are Emanuel Ax, Renée Fleming, Nelson Freire, Martin Fröst, Alban Gerhardt, Vadim Gluzman, Natalia Gutman, Kari Kriikku, Simone Lamsma, Lang Lang, Francois Leleux, Jan Lisiecki, Alexei Lubimov, Tatjana Masurenko, Albrecht Mayer, Daniel Müller-Schott, Olli Mustonen, Steven Osborne, Julian Rachlin, Benjamin Schmid, Julian Steckel, Anna Vinnitskaya and Alexei Volodin.
Saleem Ashkar made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 22 and has since gone on to establish an international career. Recent and future concerto highlights include the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the St Louis, Vancouver and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras.
He has also performed with the Wiener Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de Lyon and on a three week tour to Australia. Saleem has a close relationship with many leading conductors including David Afkham, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Jakub Hrůša, Pietari Inkinen, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kazushi Ono and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.
A dedicated recitalist and chamber musician, Saleem has a particularly strong reputation as a Beethoven specialist and has recently performed a complete Sonata cycle in Prague, Duisburg and at the Konzerthaus Berlin. This season he will performing a series of recitals in Copenhagen and Milan exploring the early, middle and late sonatas of Beethoven alongside other composers that were influenced by him. Other recent and future recital appearances include the Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls in London, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Musikverein Vienna.
Emerging from a group of devotees and enthusiasts of classical music, the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra was created by Sergey Smbatyan, the present Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the orchestra. From the very onset of its existence, the orchestra has been home to bright and energetic musicians, assembled around the shared vision of amplifying the cultural awareness in Armenia and elevating the spiritual excellence of human nature by the power of classical music. The orchestra performs over 50 concerts annually, with a rich and multifarious repertoire covering multiple music genres and performance formats.
It has been profiled a multitude of times with such world-class composers as Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Karl Jenkins, Giya Kancheli and Tigran Mansuryan as well as a number of highly distinguished performing artists. The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra has a history of close relationships with world-scale artists such as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Maxim Vengerov, Denis Matsuev, Vadim Repin, Vag Papian, Boris Berezovsky, Zakhar Bron and others.
The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra has been hosted by many reputable concert halls around the world, including Opera Garnier (Paris), Konzerthaus (Berlin), Dr. Anton Philipszaal (Hague), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Great Hall of Conservatory (Moscow), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Royal Theatre (Madrid), Dubai Opera House and others.
A remarkable chapter in the history of the orchestra was the 2020 European Tour with the renowned violin virtuoso and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra’s Artist-in-Residence Maxim Vengerov, with brilliant performances hosted on famous stages around Europe - Berliner Philharmonie, Vienna's Musikverein, London's Barbican Center, Prague's Dvorak Hall, Salzburg's Grosses Festspielhaus and Moscow's Zaryadye Concert Hall.
Aside from the extensive concert activity in Armenia and overseas, the orchestra also enjoys recognition and is highly esteemed for its increasing role in educating young people in Armenia. Since 2018, in the framework of DasA educational-cultural project the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and Sergey Smbatyan have been sparking interest and liking for classical music in high-school students across Armenia, with an attempt to galvanize a larger movement for cultivating noble insights and taste for classical music among the young generation.
A number of orchestra’s concerts have been broadcast by Medici.tv, EuroNews, and Classic.fm. In 2019, a documentary was released by Mezzo TV, featuring Sergey Smbatyan and the history of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra.
