ARCO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
HODGSON CONCERT HALL
Tuesday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m.
Hodgson Concert Hall
UGA Performing Arts Center
ARCO Chamber Orchestra
Levon Ambartsumian, Artistic Director&Conductor&Soloist
Pyeongkang Park, guest conductor
Daniel Bolshoy, guitar
PROGRAM
South American Suite for Violin , Guitar and String orchestra
Largo
CHORAL. Largo
Allegro con brio
Pyeongkang Park, conductor
Daniel Bolshoy, guitar
Levon Ambartsumian, violin
Willam Loveladay
St. Paul’s Suite
Jig. Vivace
Ostinato. Presto
Intermezzo. Andante con moto
Finale. Allegro
Pyeongkang Park, conductor
INTERMISSION
Divertimento
Allegro non troppo
Molto Adagio
Allegro assai
Levon Ambartsumian, conductor
Béla Bartók
Levon Ambartsumian, Artistic Director, Conductor
Violins: Sarah Nienhiser*
Jhonnisvan Campos*
Clarissa Tamara*
Jocelyne Andronache-Opris
Andre Araujo
Alexis Boylan**
Zeyu Yuan
Karla Mejias
Chelsea Afful
Ruhua Zhang
Jieying Wang
Violas
Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva**
Win Chin Liu
Rogelio Bonilla- Pedra
Carlos Brena
Zhijie Xu
Cellos
Thomas LaMon**
Tristan Dempsey
Ryan Dater
Joshua Nguyen
Bass
Wueliton Zanelatto Dal Pont**
Felipe Schutz, bass
*Co-concertmaster
**Principal
Pyeongkang (PK) Park is a visionary conductor and educator who serves as the Founder and Music Director of the Lawrenceville Symphony Orchestra (LSO). Renowned for his cultural leadership, Park has conducted high-profile events including the 20th Anniversary 9/11 Tribute, the 140th Anniversary of U.S.-Korea Diplomatic Relations, and the 100th Anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement. This year, he is set to lead the LSO in the prestigious America 250 celebration hosted by Gwinnett County.
Park’s professional trajectory includes collaborations with orchestras worldwide. He has served as Assistant Conductor for the 17th PRISMA Festival and the Hilex! New Music Ensemble and Cover Conductor for the Georgia Symphony Orchestra. His artistry has been recognized with Second Place in The American Prize and the Conducting Award at the 35th Pierrot Chamber Music Festival. Notably, he was the first recipient of a full fellowship scholarship for the 20th Conductors Retreat at Medomak.
A dedicated advocate for music education, Park served as a classical radio host for Atlanta Radio Korea (AM790) from 2017 to 2020. His commitment to the next generation includes leadership roles with the Greenville County Youth Orchestra, the New York Classical Youth Orchestra, and the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra (Philharmonic Director).
Park earned his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from the University of Georgia with Mark Cedel. Currently, he serves on the faculty of Killian Hill Christian School, inspiring young musicians through a blend of faith and artistic excellence.
Daniel Bolshoy is Associate Professor of Guitar at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. He has performed as a soloist with over sixty orchestras internationally, throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Russia Israel and in Asia.
An avid chamber musician, he has performed at numerous chamber music festival and concert series throughout North America, Europe, Russia, Asia and the Middle East. Daniel Bolshoy appears on eight commercial recordings and two documentary films on the Bravo! TV network. His recordings and live performances are often broadcast on CBC Radio, NPR and various classical music stations.
He has performed as solo recitalist throughout the world, often headlining guitar festivals. Recent tours have taken him to Central America, Asia, Europe the Middle East and across North America.
Dr. Bolshoy holds a D.M. Degree from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.
Daniel Bolshoy is a D’Addario Strings Gold Performing Artist.
Levon Ambartsumian is Regent’s and Franklin Professor Professor of Violin at the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Prior to coming to UGA in 1995, he was a Visiting Professor at Indiana University School of Music, replacing legendary American Violin Teacher Joseph Gingold. He also taught at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1978 where he taught for 15 years.
Ambartsumian is an alumnus of the Moscow Central Music School and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where his teachers were Felix Andrievski, Yury Yankelevitch, Leonid Kogan and Igor Bezrodny. In 1977 he became the First Prize winner of Zagreb International Violin Competition headed by Henryk Szeryng. Two years later he was a prize-winner of the Montreal International Competition, and in 1981 he won the All-Union Violin Competition in Riga.
In 1988 Amartsumian was distinguished as “Honored Artist of Armenia,” and was named “Honored Artist of Russia” in 1997. He has performed in the major cities of the United States of America, Russia, Eastern Europe, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, China, Japan, and South Korea, having collaborated as a soloist with conductors and composers such as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Maxim Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Alfred Schnittke, Karen Khachaturian, and many others.
In 1990 Ambartsumian founded the Moscow Chamber Orchestra ARCO which regularly performed in Russia and abroad and now resides in Athens, Georgia. Since its creation, Ambartsumian has led UGA’s ARCO Chamber Orchestra, commercially releasing 15 CDs and has performing four times in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. In 2011, ARCO was invited to perform at La Fenice, the world famous Opera House in Venice, Italy.
