George Pehlivanian (born 20 April 1964) is a French-American conductor. Biography A French-American conductor, born in Beirut, Lebanon, into a musical family of Armenian origin. His mother, Arpine Pehlivanian, is a Lebanese Armenian classical coloratura soprano singer who fled Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War. Pehlivanian studied violin and piano from an early age. He emigrated to Los Angeles in 1975, and worked as a violinist before studying conducting with Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, and Ferdinand Leitner. Pehlivanian also attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy. In 1991 he became the first American to win the Grand Prize in the history of the Besançon International Conductors' Competition in France. From 2005 until 2008 he was the first foreign Chief Conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2007 he became Principal Guest Conductor at the Opera Theatre of Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy. He remained Principal Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie RheinlandPfalz from 2002–12. He also held Principal Guest conducting positions with the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. He enjoys a long-standing relationship with the Spanish National Orchestra since 1996, and recorded works by Rodrigo with the orchestra. In June 2014, Pehlivanian was bestowed with the 'Golden Medal' from the Ministry of Culture of Armenia, the highest possible honor given to an artist by the Armenian government. From 2012, Pehlivanian has accepted to become Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Music et Danse de Paris, and was bestowed with the title of Honorary Director and Consultant of Music Education of the Communidad de Madrid. In 2010, he became Artistic Director and Founder of the Touquet International Music Masters Festival in Le Touquet, France, very successful and developing rapidly as one of the world's top festivals for young artists today. Pehlivanian has conducted many of the world's most famous orchestras, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonia, Orchestra della Scala, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Hamburg Symphony, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Israel Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, Bamberger Symphoniker, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Norddeutsche, Hessische and Sudwestdeutsche Runfunk Symphony Orchestras, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Orchestra Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra della RAI Torino, Bournemouth Symphony, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orquesta Nacional de Espana, Orquesta Radio Television de Espana, the Opera and Symphony Orchestras of