Emmanuel Tjeknavorian has been Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano since September 2024. In his first season, he conducted the orchestra in its first international appearance under his artistic direction at the Rheingau Music Festival. He will also lead the ensemble in a guest performance at the KKL Luzern. In addition to his work in Milan, he will make his US debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington during the 2025/26 season, and will also conduct, among others, the Orchestra Rai Torino, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra della Toscana, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Graz Philharmonic, and the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. He will also make his operatic debuts with Un Ballo in Maschera at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and with Le nozze di Figaro at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. 

In recent seasons, he has conducted a.o. the Filarmonica della Scala, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester, Bremer Philharmoniker, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, DR Symfoniorkestret Copenhagen, Dresdner Philharmonie, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Orchestra della Toscana, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE. He also led the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance of Johann Strauss’ operetta Die Fledermaus at the Musikverein Graz.  

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 winner of the Abbiati Prize and an OPUS Klassik Award, and has released several recordings as a violinist and conductor. Since 2017, he has hosted the monthly radio show "Der Klassik-Tjek" on Vienna's Radio Klassik Stephansdom. During the show, he discusses classical music with well-known personalities from other fields and demonstrates his passion for finding ways to make music accessible to a wider audience. He is also involved in numerous projects promoting young musicians. For several years, he has maintained a close collaboration with the German String Philharmonic, the ensemble of German music schools.