Boris Allakhverdyan
Boris Allakhverdyan was appointed Principal Clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2016. He previously served as Principal Clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Associate Principal Clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony. Mr. Allakhverdyan is a founding member of the Prima Trio, the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal winner of the prestigious 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
The New York Times called his performance "inspired," "gorgeous" and "superlative," and the Los Angeles Times praised his "energetic, vibrant solos."
Boris Allakhverdyan has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle, Bakersfield and Springfield Symphony orchestras as well as orchestras in Canada, Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan. He has participated in the Lucerne Festival Academy (Switzerland), the Mecklenburg-Vorpommen Festival (Germany), the Emilia Romagna Music Festival (Italy) as well as Mainly Mozart San Diego, Twickenham, Colorado and Britt Music Festivals. Mr. Allakhverdyan is a winner of Rimsky-Korsakov International Woodwind Competition, Hellam Concerto Competition, the Tuesday Musical and the Oberlin Concerto competitions. Boris Allakhverdyan serves on the faculty at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as well as at California State University at Fullerton. He previously taught at Peabody Institute of Music, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Philadelphia International Music Festival and Interlochen Clarinet Institute in Michigan. He has given master classes at most prestigious schools in North and South Americas, Europe and Asia.
An active chamber musician, Boris Allakhverdyan has performed in the MET Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie Hall, at the Chicago Chamber Music Society, La Jolla Athenaeum, Dumbarton Oaks, the Dayton Art Institute, CityMusic Columbus, Da Camera Society, Fontana Chamber Arts, Cleveland Chamber Music Society and Shenzhen International Music Festival, to name a few. Boris Allakhverdyan performs exclusively on Buffet Crampon clarinets and Vandoren mouthpieces and reeds.