Armenian National Philharmonic
Soloists
Julia FISCHER
Violin (Germany)
A student of famed violinist Ana Chumachenco, Julia Fischer is herself Germany's youngest Professor of Violin at the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. In 2005 she won Germany's coveted 'ECHO' Award for her recording of "Russian Concertos" by Khatchaturian, Prokofiev and Glazounov. Julia has appeared with many prestigious orchestras under celebrated conductors. The singularly most anticipated event of the 2007–08 season will be Julia Fischer's debut as a professional pianist. On a program where she will also play the Glazunov Violin Concerto, Ms. Fischer will perform the Grieg Piano Concerto on 1 January 2008 with Sir Neville Marriner at the Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Julia's wide range repertoire includes concertos by Beethoven, Dvorak, Shostakovich (No.1), Prokofiev, Sibelius, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozat and other composers. Highlights of the 2007–08 season include symphonic appearances with Marek Janowski, Jun Markl, Yakov Kreizberg, Neville Marriner, Christoph Poppen, Tugan Sokhiev, Yuri Temirkanov and Maestro Zinman (among others) with Czech Philharmonic, Danish Radio orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony and other orchestras. In the United States Ms. Fischer toured with Maestro Temirkanov and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. The season also included numerous recitals throughout Germany, Spain and Italy in additional to chamber music programs in the United States and Europe.
Looking to summer 2008, Ms. Fischer will make several important debuts: Tanglewood Music Festival, Blossom Festival, The BBC Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall and the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy. During the 2007–08 season PentaTone Records released Julia Fischer's third volume of Mozart (Concertante and Concertone) with Maestro Kreizberg, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and soloist Gordan Nikolic (viola and violin).
During 2009–10, she will tour her solo Bach sonatas and partitas in Europe and the US. Her PentaTone discography has gained numerous nominations including the Diapason d'Or, Choc de la Musique and two ECHO awards. Julia Fischer has recently been signed to Decca Records where her first album, dedicated to Bach, will appear in January 2009. Ms. Fischer teaches violin in Frankfurt, Germany.
Sergey KHACHATRYAN
Violin
Sergey Khachatryan was born into a musical family in 1985 in Yerevan and has lived in Germany since 1993.
He began to play violin at the age of six with Professor P.Haykazian and later studied with Professor G. Zhislin in Wurzburg and, since 1996, with Professor J.Rissin in Karlsruhe. Sergey made his debut with orchestra in Wiesbaden, when he was nine years old and gave his first recital two years later in Marignane, France.
In 2000 Mr. Khachatryan won second prize in the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna, and first prize at both the Louis Spohr Competition in Freiburg and Helsinki's prestigious International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, becoming the youngest winner in its history. In addition, he was awarded a special prize for the best interpretation of Sibelius's Violin Concerto. In 2002 he won second prize in the International J. Gingold Competition in Indianapolis.
In 2005 Sergey Khachatryan claimed the First Prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. Sergey has performed in many countries including Russia, many European countries, Japan, and throughout US and Latin America. He has appeared with a number of world known orchestras, such as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestras, Gulbenkian Orchestra and many others. Sergey has collaborated with many celebrated conductors like V. Fedoseyev, G. Herbig, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Kurt Masur, Manfred Hoeneck, Roberto Abbato and others.
Sergey Khachatryan has participated in various prestigious international music festivals. He has been highly acclaimed by press. CDs have been released with Khachatryan's recordings. Sergey is now a scholarship holder of the Anne Sophie Mutter foundation. He plays the 1708 'Huggins' Stradivarius violin on loan to him from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Anush NIKOGHOSYAN
Violin
Anush Nikoghosyan was born in Yerevan. From 1995–2003 she studied at Yerevan Sayat — Nova School of Music with Stella Karapetyan, Prof. Artashes Mkrtchian and the Distinguished Teacher of Armenia Petros Haykazian, under whose tutelage in 2005 she graduated Conservatory. Anush studied for 2 years at Munich Hochschule with Prof. Christoph Poppen.
Ms. Nikoghosyan participated in a number of International Competitions such as “Hildegard Pabelic-Jentch Preis”, 2nd prize and two special prizes, Yerevan, 2001; 1st prize Competition — Festival of Young Performers, Dubai, 2004; and Festivals “Kaunas — 2002”, “Moscow — 2004”.
Since 2001 Anush is the scholarship holder of the International Vladimir Spivakov Foundation.
Anush Nikoghosyan has performed in the UK, Lithuania, U.A.E., Syria, Russia and Germany. From 1998, she has appeared as soloist with chamber and symphonic orchestras, such as the Yerevan Symphony Orchestra, Armenian National Philharmonic, Kaunas Chamber Orchestra and Serenade Chamber Orchestra.
Sergei BABAYAN
Piano
“An unequaled touch, perfectly harmonious phrasing and breathtaking virtuosity, his music seemed to speak directly to us.”
La Figaro, Paris
Sergei Babayan, pianist with the extraordinary ability to hypnotize an audience, has been hailed by critics as a “poet of the piano.” His teachers were Luisa Markaryan and Prof. Georgy Sarajev (Yerevan) and later Vera Gornostaeva, Lev Naumov, Mikhail Pletnev and Lev Vlasenko (Moscow). Babayan's deep interest in the music of Bach led him to study more recently with Helmut Rilling.
Sergei Babayan was awarded the first prizes in several major international piano competitions, including: the Robert Casadesus (former Cleveland International Competition, 1990), the Palm Beach International Piano Competition (1990), the Hamamatsu Piano Competition (1991) and the Scottish International Competition (1992). He is also a Laureate of the Queen Elizabeth, the Busoni and the Esther Honens (Canada) International Competitions. He has had extensive tours throughout Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America and the USA. Mr. Babayan has performed in many important venues like Saal Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, Grand Hall of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and countless others.
Sergei Babayan appeared in numerous major music festivals in France, Germany, U.K., Poland, Spain, and the U.S. His concerts have been broadcast by WQXR, WCLV, Radio France, Polish Radio and Television, BBC-TV and NHK Satellite Television. He has made a number of CD recordings to the highest critical acclaim. Mr. Babayan has performed with the world's major orchestras under such celebrated conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, Neeme Jarvi, Hans Graf, David Robertson, Karzimerz Kord, Michael Chrsitie and many others. Sergei is an enthusiastic advocate of a new music and has an immense repertoire. His concerto repertoire is constantly growing. At this point he has 45 piano concertos that have been performed.
Always in search of the new, Sergei Babayan studied conducting in order to deepen his understanding of the orchestra, to be able to study and perform some of the music of the 20th century which is particularly interesting for him, as well as to conduct piano and orchestra repertoire from the keyboard. In this role, he already has performed music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Schnittke, Part, Vasks, Shchedrin, and Prokofiev.
This summer Mr. Babayan is invited by Valery Gergiev to play Witold Lutoslawky's Piano Concerto in the “White Nights Festival” dedicated to Dmitri Shostakovich with the orchestra of Mariinsky Theater.
