New York City Opera has announced the appointment of Constantine Orbelian, 64, as the company’s Music Director and Principal Conductor. Orbelian will conduct his first NYCO production this summer when the company performs a newly created version of Rigoletto on Sunday, August 29 at the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice in Kingston, New York, followed by an encore performance of the opera on Friday, September 3 as part of Bryant Park’s annual Picnic Performance series.
Born in San Francisco to Russian and Armenian émigré parents, Constantine Orbelian made his debut as a piano prodigy with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of 11. After graduating from Juilliard in New York, he embarked on a career as a concert pianist and conductor.
He has been chief conductor of the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania since 2014, and in 2016 he was appointed the artistic director of Armenia’s Yerevan Opera Theatre and in 2017 became its General Director.
