The Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra was formed in 1941 in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. The founder of Armenian national symphonic music Alexander Spendiarian, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, conducted its first performance. As the leading symphony orchestra of Armenia, the orchestra's activities have included regular weekly concerts at Aram Khachaturian Hall, as well as concert tours throughout Russia, the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Iran, UAE, Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, performing at various prestigious venues like the Carnegie Hall (New York), Symphony Hall (Boston), Lincoln Center (Washington), Megaron (Athens), Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory to name a few. In October 2000, Eduard Topchjan was appointed the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the orchestra, a position that was formerly held by conductors such as Michael Maluntsian, Ruben Vardanian, David Khandjian, Valery Gergiev, Vahagn Papian, Loris Tjeknavorian and Michael Avetissian. Over the years many of the world's leading conductors and soloists have appeared in concert with the orchestra, including A.Melik-Pashayev, V.Ferrero, F.Konvichni, K.Masur, G.Rozhdestvensky, S. Richter, M. Rostropovich, D. Oistrach, E.Gilels, I. Stern, L. Kogan, V.Cliburn, A. Watts, G. Kremer, V. Ashkenazy, V.Spivakov and N.Gutman. The tradition of inviting the renowned soloists from all over the world to perform with the APO continues nowadays as well. Among the soloists that performed with the orchestra during the last years were Steven Isserlis, Francois-Joel Thiollier, David.Geringas, Nikolay Petrov, June Anderson, Kim Kashkashian, Sergey Babayan, Ani and Ida Kavafians, Bernard Ringeissen, Alexei Lyubimov, Sergey Khachatryan, Sergey Nakariakov, Renato Bruson, Isabel Bayrakdaryan, Alexander Treger, Vladimir Krainev and many others. The orchestra has performed most of the classical repertoire, as well as premiered many works of the contemporary composers and realized a number of concert performances of the well-known operas. Since 1990, the Armenian Philharmonic has released more than 40 CDs including those on ASV label, which were distributed throughout the world. Some of the recordings were selected by Hi-Fi, Gramophone and BBC Classic CD magazines as the Best Record of the Month. Among the forthcoming tours of the APO are those in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany and France. The Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra is housing at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Armenian General Benevolent Union and its President Mrs.Louise Manoogian Simone, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra and Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall are able to continue their activities on the highest professional level. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.