Artistic Director and Principal Conductor: Robert Mlkeyan                 

The National Chamber Choir of Armenia (NCCA) was founded in 2000 and Maestro Robert Mlkeyan, an Honored Worker of Art of Armenia, was appointed as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the ensemble.

In 2006, the ensemble took part in the International Festival of Modern Music in Donizetti Opera Theatre in Bergamo, Italy, and performed several concerts in the White Hall and Catherine Palace in Saint Petersburg, thus summing up the Year of Armenian Culture in Russia. NCCA has toured in Argentina, Canada, Georgia, Greece, Lebanon, and the UK.

On the 140^th anniversary of Komitas’ birth, in 2009, NCCA recorded two CDs at Saghmosavank Monastery, featuring selected sacred and secular choral works by the genius composer. In the same year, concerts were organized in the Gaveau Concert Hall and Saint-Louis Church in Paris, a concert-lecture was held at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), Berlin, and concerts were held in Geneva and Zurich. In 2019, the Choir had a concert dedicated to the 150^th birth anniversary of Komitas Vardapet in the UNESCO Headquarters’ concert hall in Paris. In 2021 the Choir took part at the Ravenna festival with the local symphony orchestra and then in Yerevan opera theater by the leading of world famous conductor Riccardo Muti.  

NCCA released its Ars Poetica CD on ECM Records in 2006, featuring the choral concert written by Tigran Mansurian which is based on ten poems by Yeghishe Charents. The CD was awarded a five-star rating by the World Music Council. The inclusion of the Ars Poetica CD in The Gramophone, a prestigious music catalogue which reports on the most outstanding classical CDs since 1923, may be considered one of the many significant achievements of the choir.

Over the years the choir has performed world premieres featuring com positions by Tigran Mansurian, David Halajian, Edward Hayrapetian and many others. NCCA’s repertoire also includes Bach, Brahms Faure, Gabrielli, Schnittke, Schubert, Vasks, and other great composers. Besides its frequent concerts and tours, NCCA participates in charity projects by performing in educational institutions, military units and in rural areas of Armenia to introduce the choral culture to a wider audience in the country.