Mikael Avetisyan, Conductor Email Mikael Avetisyan is the Music Director of the Armenian Society of Los Angeles Choir in Glendale and conducts the New Valley Symphony Orchestra in Sherman Oaks both of California. He is also teaching composition and conducting classes at the International School of Music in Glendale, CA. For his artistic achievements and 2004/05 concert series Mikael Avetisyan was honored with the City of Glendale and County of Los Angeles Artistic Achievement Diamond Award. Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Mikael Avetisyan received his primary musical education at Tchaikovsky Professional School of Music of Yerevan earning his diploma from the department of Composition and Theory of Music. In 1989 Mr Avetisyan receiving his Master’s Degree in Opera-Symphony Conducting from Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory where he studied with Maestro Yasha Voskanian and later completing his post-graduate studies received Doctor of Musical Arts degree under the guidance of Maestro Ohan Durian. From 1987 to 1989, parallel to his studies at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, Mr. Avetisyan completed a course in conducting in the class of Professor Maestro Ilia Musin at St. Petersburg State Conservatory. He is a diplomant of the 35th Kirill Kondrashin Conductors Master Classes held in Netherlands by at Sir Edward Downes and Peter Eotvos. From 1992 Mikael Avetisyan regularly performed with the National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet Orchestra and National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1994 he became the Principal Conductor of Yerevan State Symphony Orchestra; and in 1997 he was appointed the Music Director and the Principal Conductor of the Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra. Mikael Avetisyan has conducted the USSR State Symphony Orchestra and a number of European and Russian Orchestras in France, Netherlands, Greece, Spain, Russia, Georgia, and Turkey. His recordings with “Moscow” S ymphony Orchestra were released on RCD.