Ani Aznavoorian Cello

sponsor: M. Elizabeth Halloran
Present

Cellist Ani Aznavoorian has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the world including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops. Aznavoorian is an avid chamber musician and teacher. She is the principal cellist of Camerata Pacifica and appears regularly at chamber music festivals around the globe. She has also served on the music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, and has spent summers as faculty of the Great Mountains Music Festival and School in South Korea. She is the recipient of the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award for her playing and artistry, has been named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts upon receiving a medal from President Bill Clinton, and was a prize winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition. She is a proponent of new music and has premiered concertos by Lera Auerbach and Ezra Laderman and chamber music repertoire by John Harbison, David Bruce, and Bright Sheng. Next season she will return to Armenia, the country of her ancestors, in a promotional tour of her latest CD release entitled Gems from Armenia, as well as make her debut in The Netherlands at The Hague. Aznavoorian records for Cedille Records and she proudly performs on a cello made by her father Peter Aznavoorian in Chicago.