Oundjian, Peter

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Oundjian, Peter

Oundjian, Peter, Canadian conductor; b. Toronto, Dec. 21, 1955. He received training in violin from Parikian and received the Gold Medal of the Royal Coll. of Music in London. He pursued violin studies with Galamian, Perlman, and DeLay at the Juilliard School in N.Y., and also attended master classes in conducting given by Karajan. After winning first prize in the Vina del Mar Violin Competition in Chile in 1980, he distinguished himself as first violinist in the Tokyo String Quartet (1981–95). In 1995 he made his conducting debut with the Orch. of St. Luke’s at the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, N.Y. He was named artistic director of the Caramoor Festival in 1997, the same year that he made his German debut as guest conductor with the Saarbrücken Radio Sym. Orch. and his Scottish debut as guest conductor with the Scottish Chamber Orch. at the Edinburgh Festival. In 1998 he became music director of the Niew Sinfonietta in Amsterdam. He made his British debut as guest conductor with the City of Birmingham Sym. Orch. in 2000.

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire