Tigran Arakelyan named one of this year’s Top 30 Professionals by Musical America Worldwide

Tigran Arakelyan, an Armenian-American executive director, conductor, podcaster, and radio host, has been named one of the Top 30 Professionals of the Year by Musical America Worldwide.

Musical America Worldwide is the oldest classical music magazine in the United States. This year’s Musical America Top 30 Professionals are the entrepreneurs, the worker bees, and the creative minds that ensure the health of the artform and its essential value in our lives.

“Tigran Arakelyan finds it hard to recount everything he’s accomplished in his 36 years without being overwhelmed with gratitude. He’s ‘been fortunate,’ he insists. Or he’d sooner credit his many mentors—like his first music teacher in Armenia, or Ludovic Morlot, former music director of the Seattle Symphony—and his parents, who encouraged his ‘crazy ideas.’ Crazy to some, maybe.

But many can’t imagine classical music in the Seattle area without Arakelyan. Recently named one of 425 Business magazine’s 40 under 40, Arakelyan has conducted numerous regional orchestras in Washington and California; he took the Federal Way Youth Symphony on three tours to South Korea in 2014, 2017, and 2019, and is known for finding unusual venues for all of his projects, from bars to cafes to homeless shelters.

On his podcast, Let’s Talk Off the Podium, he has interviewed a huge variety of notables including George Walker, Vijay Iyer, Evelyn Glennie, JoAnn Falletta, Sharon Isbin, and Christopher Theofanidis,” writes Musical America.