Ballet Suite N2 (from "Sevan" Ballet)

Mikayel Maluntsyan was born in Baku. In 1925, he graduated from the Tbilisi Conservatory in the cello class of Professor K. Minyar. Later in 1935, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in the opera and symphonic conducting class of Professor L. Ginzburg. Between 1927 and 1931, he taught cello at the Yerevan State Conservatory. In 1932, Mikayel conducted the All-Union Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1934 to 1945, he was a conductor for the Opera Studio at the Moscow Conservatory. After returning to Yerevan in 1945, he resumed his teaching career at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, where Mikayel directed the opera and symphonic conducting class and headed the Department of Orchestral Instruments (becoming a professor in 1962). From 1945 to 1960, and again from 1966 to 1967, Maluntsyan worked as the founding artistic director and principal conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of Armenia. In 1956, he was honored with the title of People’s Artist of Armenia. Mikayel Maluntsyan passed away in Yerevan.