Boris Allakhverdyan

Boris Allakhverdyan is an Armenian-American clarinet player. He currently performs as principal clarinet at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and serves on the faculties of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and California State University, Fullerton.

Early life Allakhverdyan was raised in Russia, where he started the clarinet at age 9. His father, Valery Allakhverdyan, was principal clarinet of the Baku Opera House. Allakhverdyan studied at the Moscow Conservatory, and at age 19, he moved to the United States to study at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. In 2016, he won his current position as principal clarinet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he joined other former Met principal players Whitney Crockett and Denis Bouriakov.

In 2018, he received faculty appointments at Cal State Fullerton and UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.