Acclaimed for his achievements at home and increasingly in demand on the international stage, Sergey Smbatyan continues to serve as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and has been Principal Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra since September 2019. One of the most outstanding moments in his career as an orchestra conductor was his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra. Sergey Smbatyan conducted the joint gala concert with the renowned artist Maxim Vengerov at the Windsor Castle for HRH Prince Charles “Princes Trust” event. After the great success, the concert was repeated at Buckingham Palace in 2011 where he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra again. <<cut>>
During recent seasons Sergey Smbatyan has extended his career, working as guest conductor with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and, among others, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin. He made his debut with the Malta Philharmonic in the summer of 2017, led the orchestra on tour to prestigious venues in Germany and Austria the following year, and was invited soon after to become its Principal Conductor.
During the 2021/22 season, he is set to join the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra for a European tour, including concerts at the Berliner Philharmonie and the Musikverein in Vienna. His schedule also included dates with the Russian National Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and the Slovak Philharmonic as part of the 2021 InClassica International Music Festival. Smbatyan will conduct the Malta Philharmonic on its first UK tour in 2022/2023 season, presenting eleven concerts at leading venues in company with Maxim Vengerov as soloist, and make his debut with the Israel Philharmonic soon after.
Sergey Smbatyan’s development as man and musician owes much to the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, which he founded in 2006 as an eighteen-year-old student. He has overseen its transformation since from youth ensemble into a fully-fledged professional orchestra, ranked among Armenia’s best. At the start of 2020 conductor and orchestra undertook a landmark eight-concert European tour, complete with debut appearances at Vienna’s Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, Salzburg’s Großes Festspielhaus, the Barbican Hall in London, Moscow’s Zaryadye Concert Hall, the Gasteig Munich, Stuttgart’s Beethoven Hall and Prague’s Rudolfinum.
In addition to his work as conductor, Smbatyan has also made significant contributions to the arts in Armenia as founder of four music festivals and creator of the annual Khachaturian International Competition’s conducting category. The remit of his festivals, represented in the titles of the Armenian Composing Art Festival, the Khachaturian International Festival, the “Armenia” International Music Festival and the Contemporary Classics Composers’ Festival, reflects the high value Smbatyan places on new work, encouraging young composers and performers and building on the great legacy of classical music’s past.
Sergey Smbatyan has created four other orchestras in recent years. In 2017 he founded the 24/04 Orchestra to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide and the “Generation of Independence” All-Armenian Choir and Orchestra to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Armenia’s independence from the Soviet Union. He also founded the UNICEF Children’s Chamber Orchestra, dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra, an initiative intended to unite Armenians around the world.
Sergey Smbatyan’s list of awards and prizes includes the title of Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia, presented by the President of the Republic of Armenia in recognition for his promotion of Armenian music and culture, and first prize in the conducting category of the inaugural Debut Berlin competition at the Berlin Philharmonie. In 2014 he became the youngest ever worker in the field of the arts and the first Armenian to be appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
Highlights of his career include performances with the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow, the DSO Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, the Warsaw Philharmonic at the 19th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and the Korean Chamber Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center. The collaboration with the Korean Chamber Orchestra continued later in Moscow with soloist Pinchas Zukerman, in Boston, and at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Born in Yerevan into a family of musicians in 1987, Sergey Smbatyan showed exceptional musical promise at an early age. He received his first violin lessons from his grandmother, the violinist and renowned pedagogue Tatiana Hayrapetyan, continued his studies at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and received advanced lessons from Bagrat Vardanyan and Zakhar Bron.