Ambartsumian named Regents Professor

It is with great pleasure that we join in celebration of the naming of Franklin Professor of Violin Levon Ambartsumian as a Regents Professor:

Regents Professorships are bestowed by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia on faculty members whose scholarship or creative activity is recognized nationally and internationally as innovative and pace-setting. The professorship includes a $10,000 salary increase and is granted for an initial period of three years, which may be renewed. No more than one Regents Professorship is given in any year at UGA.

An acclaimed violinist who has performed and taught classes on four continents, Ambartsumian has elevated UGA's music program in his two decades on campus. He is the founder and conductor of the renowned ARCO Chamber Orchestra as well as a featured soloist who has toured the globe and recorded 40 music albums.

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Ambartsumian joined UGA's faculty in 1995, two years removed from a 25-year career at the Moscow Conservatory, an internationally renowned training ground for violinists, where he earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Ambartsumian, who also was appointed to the Central Music School while teaching at the conservatory, came to the U.S. to serve as a temporary faculty replacement at Indiana University before joining the Hodgson School of Music, part of UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

Ambartsumian represents the very best of imaginative artistry as a performer and, importantly, as a teacher, and many of the nation's most promising violinists come to UGA to study with him. His ARCO Chamber Orchestra is one of our best ensembles, featuring top students alongside our most accomplished faculty performers. I was fortunate to have accompanied ARCO to Italy in 2011, for a performance in Venice as UNESCO artists. The performance and short tour that followed was a wonderful experience that exemplified Ambartsumian's mien as well as the extraordinary repertoire of his ensemble.