Barsegh Tumanyan

He was born in Yerevan. In 1982 Barsegh Tumanyan graduated from the singing department of the Yerevan Komitas Conservatory (class of Professor Arshavir Karapetyan). In 1982–1983 he sang at the La Scala opera house in Milan. In 1985 he completed postgraduate studies at the Moscow Conservatory (class of Professor Yevgeny Nesterenko). From 1980 he was a soloist of the Yerevan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, and later a soloist of the Alexandrov Ensemble of the Russian Armed Forces. After the 1988 Spitak earthquake, in 1989 he took part in a concert organised at Covent Garden in London and broadcast throughout Europe through Intervision, performing Attila's aria from Verdi's opera of the same name. In 1990 he performed at London's Wigmore Hall, which brought him great fame. In the early 1990s he performed in European cities and in Australia, where he received a Special Prize for the role of Méphistophélès in a production of the opera "Faust". In 2002–2005 he gave solo concerts in many cities of the USA, Austria, Canada, Germany, China and Japan. He also took part in the Days of Armenian Culture held in St Petersburg. He was elected Vice-President of the International Academy of Sciences of Nature and Society. Since 2000 he has been President of the Armenian branch of the High Art Assembly. In 2010 he performed in Yerevan with the opera singer Plácido Domingo. Since 2014 Barsegh Tumanyan has been a leading soloist of the Astana Opera. He has performed at Covent Garden, the Teatro Colón, the Los Angeles and Washington opera houses, the Metropolitan Opera, the Victoria Opera, the Sydney Opera House, the Munich State Opera, the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Vienna State Opera, the Opéra Bastille, the Marseille Opera, the Bercy arena in Paris, the Opéra National de Lyon and other renowned opera and philharmonic stages. He gives master classes at universities and conservatories around the world: Marseille, Toronto, Montreal, Weimar, Kitzbühel, Berlin, Shiyan, Tehran. He is a professor at the Astana National University. In 2018, in the American city of Glendale, he took part in the gala concert "Barsegh Tumanyan and Friends". He is a professor at the Kazakh National University of Arts. Tumanyan has collaborated with the renowned conductors A. Pappano, B. Haitink, I. Marin, Yu. Simonov, M. Whun Chung, J. Rudel, V. Ashkenazy, R. Dival, G. Rozhdestvensky, A. Lombard, E. Topchyan, C. Orbelian, M. Ermler, M. Viotti, J. Fiore, C. Rizzi and others. In 1982 he received the honorary prize of the city of 's-Hertogenbosch in Holland; in 1983 he became an honorary citizen of the city of Milan; in 1986 he won 2nd prize at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow and, also in 1986, 2nd prize at the "Voci Verdiane" (Verdi Voices) competition in Parma; in 1987 he won the Grand Prix of the international music competition held in Rio de Janeiro; and in 2005 he became an honorary citizen of the city of Glendale, USA. In 1987 B. Tumanyan was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Armenian SSR; since 2006 he has been a People's Artist of the Republic of Armenia and since 2008 an Honorary Professor of the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory; in 2008 he received the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, in 2013 the Honorary Medal of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, in 2013 the Honorary Gold Medal of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, and in 2013 the Honorary Gold Medal of the US branch of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (Los Angeles, USA); in 2024 he became an Honorary Citizen of Yerevan.