While conductor Ruben Vartanyan did not have as high a profile as some defectors, after bravery in the face of Soviet pressure, he found a musically satisfying home in the USA.

Born in Leningrad, his mother was a pianist and his father a military-band clarinettist. In 1941 the family fled the soon-to-be besieged city, for their ancestral homeland of Armenia before, aged ten, Vartanyan went to Moscow to study music. After a year as the first assistant conductor-in-training under Karajan at the Vienna State Opera and Vienna Philharmonic Opera, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1964.

He was Kirill Kondrashin's assistant at the Moscow Philharmonic for three years, before being named principal conductor of the Armenian State Symphony in 1967.

In 1970 Vartanyan moved to Bolivia to become principle conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra. After the 1971 coup, Vartanyan became friendly with a music-loving general, piquing the KGB's interest. He simply replied: 'I am not a spy. I am a musician.' He later reflected: 'I am an outspoken person, I could not disguise my feelings.'

Back in Moscow five years later, his response had not been forgotten: his search for work met 'an absolute wall of silence.' Nevertheless, he continued to study scores 'to keep up the feeling that I am a conductor, I am a professional.' It was only an outstanding performance of 'Carmen' and a direct appeal to Brezhnev that got him back into the Bolshoi.

Even so, his 536 Bolshoi performances did not win him the right to tour outside the USSR until a 1988 return to Bolivia. He grabbed his chance, and after an escape that he would only describe as 'very difficult and very dangerous', he sought asylum at the US Embassy.

Supported by the Jamestown Foundation, an organisation devoted to helping Soviet defectors, he settled in Northern Virginia, conducting at George Mason University and the Friday Morning Music Club before a 1991 performance led to his appointment as music director of the Arlington Symphony (later the Arlington Philharmonic). A year later he added the post of principal conductor of the Williamsburg Symphonia and later also became music director of the National Lyric Opera Company in Washington, whilst teaching at Shenandoah Conservatory and George Mason University. His operatic experience influenced all of his conducting and he emphasised that 'It is important to make music, not just play music.'

His last concert - Mozart, Bizet and Tchaikovsky - was with the Arlington Philharmonic on March 9.

Ruben Zavenovich Vartanyan. Conductor. Born Leningrad 3 June 1936. Died May 7. Married Tatiana (died 1986). The only survivor is his sister Karin.