A maestro with destiny

Robert Mlkeyan is a bright and distinctive personality in his art, endowed with the noblest human qualities.

“I am grateful to God for giving me the ability to be a musician and communicate with the spiritual,” these are the jubilee words of RA People’s Artist, conductor and artistic director of the State Chamber Choir of Armenia, Robert Mlkeyan, whose best expression is the selfless activity of the maestro. The Maestro was born in the heart of Armenia, in the capital Yerevan, whose 65th birthday is here. As a result of the polite upbringing of his parents, he is admitted to a music school and learns to play the violin. However, the father’s longing wish was to see his son at the conductor’s panel of the symphony orchestra.

Maestro is sure that everything in his life is decided from above. Providence. Fate. The Father was no longer the protector from heaven. Robert Mlkeyan is admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, studying opera, symphonic conducting and choral conducting. Fortunately… After receiving a brilliant academic education, he returns to his homeland and continues his studies at the post-graduate course of Yerevan State Conservatory named after Komitas under Emin Khachatryan. Mlkeyan remembers the lecturer and those happy years with a special kind and gentle smile, considering Emin Khachatryan’s presence in his life as a gift from the Most High.

The talented maestro was invited to Gyumri in 1992 to lead the local symphony orchestra and chamber choir. The hometown welcomed Robert Mlkeyan with open arms, who in turn invested all his potential. It was given. He created a new quality and gave a new impetus to the musical and cultural life of Gyumri with his moral character, the benchmark of classical and spiritual, high merits of St. Petersburg academic education. Due to its special great responsibility, strong will, unceasing hard work, the Gyumri Symphony Orchestra received state status in 1993, which continues to this day. The maestro led it until 2000. Now with greatness and prayers, he follows from Yerevan, supports, rejoices at every success of the orchestra. In those years, and more precisely in 1995, Robert Mlkeyan founded the “High Folk” vocal ensemble, which was particularly successful. With guest performances and concert activities, he impressed both Armenian and foreign audiences.

One of the important highlights of Maestro Mlkeyan’s creative life is the creation and foundation of the Armenian Chamber Choir in 2000. This is not only his achievement, but also the achievement of the Armenian nation. It is a presentable, valuable cultural organism with all its charm and high aesthetic art. In 2008, the Chamber Choir of Armenia received state status.

At the request and care of Sister Arusiak, general superior of the Congregation of Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, well-known benefactor, Robert Mlkeyan re-creates the “Our Lady of Armenia” choir. The maestro speaks and tells about this choir with the emotion of his heart. He considers the choir girls his children. The biggest success was a speech in Rome in 2015 during a Mass where the Pope officiated. In 2016, when the Pope of Rome came to Gyumri, during the liturgy, he asked that the “Our Lady of Armenia” choir sing the liturgy in Gyumri, as in Rome. The tours of this group in European countries were unforgettable and wonderful.

Robert Mlkeyan is a bright and distinctive personality in his art, endowed with the noblest human qualities. The warmth of his soul and the kindness of his heart are evident in his works. And where a high intellectual appears, the magic of music blossoms and awakens. The Maestro creates with great skill, the highest standard and within the limits of perfection. Having a rich soul, a unique musical-philosophical thinking, he fantastically presents and makes accessible to everyone the high art samples of music, revealing the inexplicable labyrinth.

R. With the interpretation of the highest censer of Mlkeyan’s performing arts, thanks to the divine hand of the wise leader, the music sounds like a prayer, reaching and passing the earthly. Where both the Armenian and foreign audiences are inadvertently transported from our days to the pre-Christian era. Traveling around and learning about spiritual and worldly events, we meet at the abstract intersection of the past and the present. And he understands that Armenia is the source of spirituality in the world. We have a huge cultural heritage: psalms, hymns, poems, treasures. We have Mesrop Mashtots, Nerses Shnorali, Narekatsi, we have Komitas Vardapet.

Maestro is not only a brilliant specialist and creator, but also an intellectual who thinks for the motherland, preserver, spreader and transmitter of cultural heritage, a supporter of the wonderful, a high-value Armenian. He brings the art he created to universal resounding with skillful craftsmanship and perfect common sense. His dedication and contribution to musical and cultural life is undeniable. Robert Mlkeyan was the artistic director of the musical part of the Armenian days of the EXPO 2000 world exhibition held in Hanover. The intense activity of the State Chamber Choir of Armenia with its thirty cultural soldiers, in particular the director of the branch, the honored figure of art of Armenia, Armen Arabyan, has already entered the international arena. The mission of the choir is to give a new breath, to popularize the highest examples of choral art as a national identity and universal value, connecting a cultural bridge to the world.

They have given concerts in different countries of the world, in prestigious halls – Donizetti’s opera theater in Bergamo, “White Hall” in St. Petersburg, in the concert hall of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, as well as in cathedrals of historical significance. The world-famous ECM records recording studio recorded Tigran Mansuryan’s choral concert Ars Poetica, which was released as a cassette and received high praise from the world music community, receiving five stars. Also included in the prestigious English catalog THE GRAMAPHONE. A strong spiritual and secular selection of Komitas choruses dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the Rev. Vardapet’s birth, recorded in Saghmosavank, was recognized as the best. All this had not only an artistic, but also a high-value tendency. securing a unique place for Armenian musical culture in the global cultural domain.

Thanks to the precise creative activity of the artist, today we have a musically minded and educated audience.

He is an ARTIST through and through. The charismatic Maestro enjoys the love and sympathy of the people without hesitation. This is evidenced by the non-stop applause during and at the end of each concert, the warm reception of people, bravos and the flow of the audience to the backstage for one photo, greeting, thanks.

“I am asking the Creator that obstacles should never be created for people, because humanity is already suffering. …Perhaps one day we will recover as a nation.” R. M.

Marianna Gevorgyan

“Aravot” daily newspaper
11.06.2026