Boris Allakhverdyan is an Armenian-American clarinet player. He currently performs as principal clarinet at the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

, and serves on the faculties of the

UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, is “the first school of music to be established in the University of California system.” Established in 2007 under the purview of the U ...

, and

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

Early life

Allakhverdyan was raised in Russia, where he started the clarinet at age 9. His father, Valery Allakhverdyan, was principal clarinet of the Baku Opera House. Allakhverdyan studied at the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (russian: Московская государственная консерватория им. П. И. Чайковского, link=no) is a musical educational inst ...

, and at age 19, he moved to the United States to study at the

Oberlin Conservatory of Music The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory in Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one of ...

. At Oberlin, Allakhverdyan formed the Prima Trio, a chamber ensemble that later won the

Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition is the largest and oldest continuous chamber music competition in the United States. In 1973, Joseph E. Fischoff and fellow members of the South Bend Chamber Music Society established a competition to ...

in 2007. He graduated in 2006 with two degrees- a performance certificate and an artist diploma. Allakhverdyan then enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of Music for his master's degree.

Career

In his first year at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2008, he earned a full-time orchestral position as associate principal clarinetist of the

Kansas City Symphony The Kansas City Symphony (KCS) is a United States symphony orchestra based in Kansas City, Missouri. The current music director is conductor Michael Stern. The Symphony performs at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, located at 1601 Br ...

. After four years in Kansas City, Allakhverdyan won principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In 2016, he won his current position as principal clarinet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he joined other former Met principal players Whitney Crockett and Denis Bouriakov. In 2018, he received faculty appointments at

Cal State Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

and

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allakhverdyan, Boris Living people Year of birth missing (living people)