Konstantin Ishkhanov

Konstantin Ishkhanov (born January 23, 1970) is an Armenian entrepreneur, philanthropist. He is the Founder and President of the European Foundation for Support of Culture. He's the only foreign recipient of Malta’s highest award in the arts.
He is the father of pianist Dmitry Ishkhanov.
== Early life ==
He was born on January 23, 1970 in the city of Baku in Soviet Azerbaijan to Armenian parents. His mother is a doctor and his father was an engineer. He graduated secondary school in 1987 and enrolled at the Azerbaijan Institute of Oil and Chemistry. In 1988 he entered the compulsory service in the Soviet army and was demobilized in August 1989.
== Education ==
Being the Armenian by nationality after Baku pogrom of January 1990 Konstantin Ishkhanov and his family moved to Moscow. He transferred to the second year of the the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, from which he graduated in 1993 with the specialty "Information-measuring and computing equipment" and received the qualification "Engineer and electrician".
In 1993-1995 he had a postgraduate study at the Russian Scientific Research Institute of Oil and Gas as an engineer in the laboratory of design and construction work to create low-waste, resource-saving, environmentally friendly oil production complexes. In the same place, he worked as a research fellow in the department of "Automation of oil and gas production"
In 1995-96 he was the Director of the Scientific Center of the Russian-American Oil and Gas Company. In 1996-1999 he became the Deputy General Director of the Russian-American Oil and Gas Company. In 1999-2005 he started to work as a Deputy General Director in the group of companies "Electroservice".
In 2005-09 he founded the Group of Companies "Industrial Technologies of Electrical Engineering" "PROMTEHELEKTRO". 
== Activities ==
In 2007 Ishkhanov and his family moved to Malta. 
In April 2011 he found the annual cultural project Malta International Music Festival - a project initiated and implemented by him. It attracts world-famous stars such as Grigory Sokolov, Maxim Vengerov, Ray Chen, Salvatore Accardo, Andreas Ottensamer, Nikolai Lugansky and many others to take part.
Since February 2015 he is the Founder and President of the European Foundation for Support of Culture (EUFSC) – non-profit voluntary organization dealing with cultural international projects in Malta and worldwide. 
The European Foundation for Support of Culture organizes annually dozens of festivals and concerts of classical music, many master classes, ballet and theatrical performances. The Foundation promotes the creativity of young musicians by establishing contests with prize pools and enables artists to perform at different venues in the world, including the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Musikverein, Munich Gasteig, etc. The Foundation also contributes to the prosperity of art, the introduction of the masses to cultural achievements, and also supports modern composers.
Tours of different orchestras were organized to Europe, Asia and Americas.
In March 2019 he became the holder of the "Unique contribution and promotion to the culture of Malta” award. In early December of 2019 Konstantin Ishkhanov was awarded a medal for his contribution to the development of musical culture as part of a charity concert held in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The medal was handed to Ishkhanov by rector of the State Musical Pedagogical Institute named after Ippolitov-Ivanov Valery Vorona.
Having settled in Valletta, Ishkhanov began to engage in deepening the Armenian-Maltese relations and popularize Armenian culture in his country of residence.
The Foundation of Konstantin Ishkhanov has been engaged in the cultural life of Armenia. These are classical music festivals held in Armenia, and tours of Armenian musicians (Hayk Ghazazyan, Nareh Arghamanyan, Khachaturian Trio, State Symphony Orchestra of Armenia) around the world.
The main events, that EUFSC supported in Armenia in 2019 were the “Contemporary Classics” Composers' Festival and the ballet “Crystal Palace”. Yuri Bashmet, Krzysztof Penderecki, Karl Jenkins, Alexey Shor, Gidon Kremer and many other musicians were guests at these events.
== References ==
==External links==
* Konstantin Ishkhanov on facebook
* Konstantin Ishkhanov: World must discover Armenian talents
* President of European Foundation for Support of Culture
* Konstantin Ishkhanov - Business Profile
Category:Electrical engineering
Category:Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas
Category:1970 births
Category:Armenian businesspeople
Category:Armenian philanthropists