Armen Ksajikian began his professional career at the age of twelve with the National Philharmonic of Abkhazia in the former Soviet Union. Since his arrival in the United States in 1976, he has established himself as a vital contributor to nearly every aspect of the musical life of Los Angeles. He is admired for his artistry and beloved for his generosity and wonderful sense of humor.

Ksajikian has performed as principal or soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber, Opus Chamber and Hollywood Bowl orchestras, among others. He has toured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic to New York and Europe, and with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra to Japan and Brazil. He has also played with most symphonies in the Southland, and with the orchestras of many international ballet companies as well as the LA Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin.

In demand for music and cultural festivals, Ksajikian has appeared at the Colorado, Banff, Venice Film and Oregon Bach music festivals, among others. In 2003, he performed Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional de Brasília at the Rio International Cello Encounter.

On a given night in Southern California, you can catch Ksajikian playing Baroque music, jazz or new music with numerous early and late-period ensembles or on TV in an unmistakable cameo as a character in Animaniacs. Ksajikian has recorded hundreds of episodes of animated cartoons as a member of the Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra. As a scoring musician he has over 900 motion picture soundtracks to his credit and has performed in the Academy Awards orchestra since 2004. A shrewd casting director spotted Ksajikian on the Hollywood Bowl stage and hired him as the uzi-toting limousine driver in James Cameron’s True Lies. Ksajikian later recorded his own death scene when he was contracted for the orchestra that performed the score.

Ksajikian is a member of the adventurous Armadillo String Quartet, which was voted Best String Quartet (2004) by Los Angeles Magazine. Some of his musical adventures with this ensemble include a 34½ hour marathon performance of Joseph Haydn’s complete quartets, a 16-day whitewater tour on the Colorado River featuring concerts from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top of Mendenhall Glacier, and the quartet’s annual Music by Peter Schickele concert. In 1999, the quartet premiered Schickele’s The Moose and later recorded it live for Telarc. He is also a member of the California String Quartet and recently recorded Gernot Wolfgang’s Common Ground with bassoonist Judith Farmer.

In addition to performing in master classes with Jascha Heifetz, Ksajikian has worked with such notables as John Cage, John Adams, Henry Mancini, John Williams, Chick Corea, Randy Newman, The Manhattan Transfer, Counting Crows, Scorpions, Incubus and System of a Down. He also finds time to teach promising young cellists.

Ksajikian’s interests include backgammon; hosting poker games and late-night Armenian buffets; whitewater rafting; photography; shortcut-, fire road- and wildfire-sleuthing throughout Los Angeles; and marathon matches of Rummikub.

photo Michael Miller