Vasken Ohanian

Armenian-American composer, conductor, and countertenor Vasken Ohanian is fascinated with the expressive depth and complexity of the human experience.  In his compositions he explores and reimagines familiar concepts and stories to draw out and reexamine their true meanings.  In performance he is motivated by the same desire, embodying the essence of the music and pulling audiences into the world of the composer.

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He is a winner of the Kris Getz Composition Competition and recipient of the Dean Emeritus Luis Costa Award for Music. In 2012 he served as Co-director and Resident Conductor for the Hot Air Music Festival, and was most recently the Interim Director of Choral Vocal Studies at Golden West College. With his current project, The Komitas Series, he creates performance editions of Armenian classical music to make it more accessible to non-Armenians.

While known primarily as a composer and conductor, Vasken Ohanian is quickly becoming recognized for his work as a countertenor. Since his debut in 2011 as countertenor soloist in the San Francisco Conservatory's performance of Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, he has made appearances with Pacific Chorale, the Long Beach Camerata Singers, and Tesserae Baroque Ensemble.