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An audience with

Vartan Melkonian conductor

Queen Elizabeth Hall - Friday 1 July 2005 - at 7:45pm.

London Chamber Orchestra

What the press have said

MOZART Symphony No 40 (first movement)

FAURÉ Pavane (for orchestra)

BEETHOVEN Symphony No 6 (Pastoral)

Vartan Melkonian tells the remarkable story of Maria Jacobsen, the Danish girl who left her homeland for Anatolia's rough country at the age of nineteen and went on to establish the legendary Birds' Nest Home in 1928, where Melkonian, the conductor, spent his formative years.

How did this girl, from tame Denmark , survive alone in the wilderness? How did this urchin boy, living in the slums of Beirut , become a conductor of some of the worlds leading orchestras?

Vartan Melkonian is without formal musical education but the freshness of his approach has appealed greatly to audiences around the world. It is this very lack of formal training that has led to an uncertainty of response among some critics.

This is a rare opportunity to hear Melkonian tell this most astonishing and inspirational story, a view collection of rare photographs dating back more than 100 years and see him conduct the London Chamber Orchestra.

The concert is in support of the Birds' Nest Home.

Ticket prices are £25 - £22 - £17 - £10 Box office telephone: 0870 3800 400

For more information please contact Louisa Nunn on 01923 283 716 or email:

louisa@melkonian-foundation.org.uk