David Afkham is chief conductor and artistic director of the Spanish National Orchestra and Chorus, a position he has held since September 2019, after serving as the orchestra’s principal conductor beginning in 2014. Highlights of his 2025–26 season include a Japanese tour with the NHK Symphony, his debut with the Lucerne Symphony, and appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Seattle Opera. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances.

Other appearances include the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and Orchestre national de France, among many others.

Born in Freiburg, Germany, Afkham began piano and violin lessons at an early age. He went on to study piano, music theory, and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, before continuing his studies at the Hochschule für Musik “Franz Liszt” Weimar. Afkham was the first recipient of the Bernard Haitink Fund for Young Talent and assisted Haitink on several projects, including complete symphonic cycles with the Chicago Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra, and London Symphony. From 2009–2012, Afkham was assistant conductor of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He won first prize at the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London in 2008 and was the inaugural recipient of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award in 2010.

This season, Sergey Khachatryan performs with the Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lucerne Symphony, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalonia, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, and Taipei Symphony. His recent appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Montreal Symphony. He also toured Japan with the Nippon Foundation and performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at the Lucerne Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel as the recipient of the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut on a Great Performers Series concert with the touring London Philharmonic in March 2006, and made his debut with the SF Symphony itself in November 2007 as a Shenson Young Artist.

With his sister, pianist Lusine Khachatryan, he released the album My Armenia on the Naïve label, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. That album was awarded an Echo Klassik Award. As a duo, they have also recorded the Brahms violin sonatas, and Sergey’s discography also includes the Sibelius and Khachaturian violin concertos with Sinfonia Varsovia and Emmanuel Krivine and both Shostakovich violin concertos with the Orchestre National de France and Kurt Masur.

Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Khachatryan won first prize at the VIII International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 2000, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the competition. In 2005 he claimed first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He plays the 1724 “Kiesewetter” Stradivarius violin on a kind loan from the Stretton Society.