Emmanuel Tjeknavorian has served as Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano since September 2024. Alongside his work in Milan, the 2026–27 Season will see Tjeknavorian make his debut at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma with Le nozze di Figaro, directed by Claus Guth.

He also makes orchestral debuts with the Houston Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino, Orchestre national de Lyon, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Return engagements take him to the Grazer Philharmoniker, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester, Bremer Philharmoniker, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, and Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne.

Last season, Tjeknavorian made his critically acclaimed operatic debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Un ballo in maschera. In the summer of 2026, he also made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted the RAI National Symphony Orchestra again at the Ravello Festival.

Other engagements in recent seasons have taken him to the Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana, RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, he conducted the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance of Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus at the Graz Music Society.

Prior to embarking on his career as a conductor, 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 recipient of the prestigious Abbiati Prize and an OPUS Klassik Award and has released several recordings as a violinist and conductor. He is also involved in numerous projects supporting young musicians.

Yoonshin Song was appointed as Concertmaster of the Houston Symphony in August 2019. Prior to that, she held the same position with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. In Europe, Yoonshin has served as guest concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer for several years, and she has led the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under numerous top-tiered conductors, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Klaus Mäkelä, Daniel Harding, Mikhail Pletnev, and Antonio Pappano. She also served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra.

Beyond her first chair duties, Yoonshin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras around the world, including the Houston Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

She has also participated as a soloist and a chamber musician in various roles in leading music festivals, including the ones in Verbier, Lucerne, Samos, and Bayreuth in Europe; and the Marlboro, Great Lakes, and Deer Valley in the United States.

Yoonshin has earned many prestigious prizes throughout her career, including top prize awards in the Lipizer International Violin Competition, the Lipinski and Wieniawski International Violin Competition, the Henry Marteau International Violin Competition, and first prize at the Stradivarius International Competition in the United States.

She studied under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory and with Robert Mann, Glenn Dicterow, and Lisa Kim at the Manhattan School of Music.

Yoonshin Song, Concertmaster, is holder of the Max Levine Chair.