Ani Aznavoorian

Cellist Ani Aznavoorian is in demand as a soloist and she has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Tokyo, Helsinki, and Belgrade philharmonics, Finnish Radio Symphony, International Sejong Soloists, Juilliard Orchestra, and Chicago and Edmonton symphony orchestras. The 2024-25 season marks her 15th year as principal cellist with Camerata Pacifica. 

Aznavoorian received the prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award for her outstanding cello playing and artistry. Some of her other awards include first prizes in the Illinois Young Performers Competition (televised live on PBS with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Chicago Cello Society National Competition, Julius Stulberg Competition, and American String Teachers Association Competition. She was a top prizewinner in the 1996 International Paulo Cello Competition. As a recipient of the Level I Award in the National Foundation for the Arts Recognition and Talent Search, Aznavoorian was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performed as soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. where she met former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

As a first-year student at Juilliard, Aznavoorian won first prize in the institution’s concerto competition — the youngest cellist in the history of the school’s cello competitions to do so — and performed with the Juilliard Orchestra in concert with conductor Gerard Schwarz at Avery Fisher Hall. With only 12 hours notice, Aznavoorian stepped in to replace Natalia Gutman in three performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with the San Jose Symphony. Other notable appearances include concerts at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Ravinia’s Bennett Hall, Aspen’s Harris Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, and NPR’s Performance Today. Aznavoorian received both her Bachelor and Master of Music from Juilliard where she studied with Aldo Parisot.

Aznavoorian has been a member of the distinguished music faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and in the summers has served on the faculty of the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. She has given the world premieres of many important pieces in the cello repertoire, including Ezra Laderman’s Concerto No. 2 with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic under the baton of Lawrence Leighton Smith; Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano on stage at the Hamburg Staatsoper; and Auerbach’s Dreammusik for Cello and Chamber Orchestra, which was written for her and commissioned by Camerata Pacifica. Aznavoorian records for Cedille Records, and she proudly performs on a cello made by her father Peter Aznavoorian.