Sergei Babayan

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are currently unable to make reliable statements regarding the current and upcoming season. Meditative concentration and unusual tranquility characterize Sergei Babayan's playing – the Hamburger Abendblatt compares him to "one of those Japanese calligraphers who silently fixate on the white sheet before them until, at the right moment, they let their calligraphy brush do nothing but what a brush is meant to do, in a perfect stroke." For the Armenian-American pianist, making music is a process that should be open to surprises and spontaneous insights, allowing unexpected emotions to emerge and subtle nuances to develop naturally. His well-thought-out musical work is the result of decades of meticulous engagement with the works. His diverse and comprehensive repertoire includes over 60 concertos and other works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Ligeti, Lutosławski, Prokofiev, Pärt, Rameau, and Ryabov. Babayan's first album for Deutsche Grammophon was released in March 2018. On Prokofiev for Two, he performed his own brilliant transcriptions for piano four-hands of movements from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and other works by the composer, in a duo with the legendary Martha Argerich. Le Devoir (Montreal) hailed the album as "the CD we've been waiting for," while critic Norman Lebrecht declared that it had "raised the piano duo to a new level," adding, "if all music were like this, there would be no suffering in the world." In July 2018, Sergei Babayan signed an exclusive contract with the yellow label. "At 14, I first encountered Deutsche Grammophon through Martha Argerich's recording of Chopin's E minor Concerto," he says. "That shaped me as a musician and remains an artistic guide for me to this day. For me, Deutsche Grammophon represents the world and the creations of the artists I have admired most throughout my life. Other recordings from that time also remain clear in my memory, from Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Vladimir Horowitz. To be a DG artist myself today is an extraordinary privilege and a great honor for me. I am very grateful to my destiny for this." His first solo album for Deutsche Grammophon, a very personal program featuring music by Rachmaninoff, is now set to be released in August 2020. Rachmaninoff's work has held a central place in the pianist's life since he discovered the Piano Concerto No. 2 at the age of 13. The album contains a carefully curated selection of miniatures, including pieces from the Préludes opp. 23 and 32, the Études-Tableaux opp. 33 and 39, and the Moments musicaux op. 16, as well as transcriptions of the third movement of the Cello Sonata op. 19 and the songs "Lilacs" and "Melody" from the op. 21 cycle. Born into a musical family in Armenia, Sergei Babayan received his first piano lessons at the age of six from Luiza Markaryan and later from pianist Georgy Saradjev, a leading representative of the St. Petersburg school and former student of the legendary Vladimir Sofronitsky. Babayan subsequently studied with Lev Naumov, Vera Gornostayeva, and Mikhail Pletnev at the Moscow Conservatory. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s, he was the first artist from the USSR to participate in international competitions without state support. Babayan's breakthrough came in 1989 with successive victories at the international Robert Casadesus Competition (now renamed the Cleveland International Piano Competition), the international Hamamatsu Competition in Japan, and the international Scottish Piano Competition. After moving to the USA, he became artist-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1992. Since then, he has performed at renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Prinzregententheater in Munich, as well as at festivals in Salzburg, Verbier, and La Roque d'Anthéron. He has collaborated with leading conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Rafael Payare, David Robertson, Tugan Sokhiev, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Yuri Temirkanov, Joshua Weilerstein, and Nikolaj Znaider. In November 2019, Sergei Babayan was "Curating Artist" at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, where he presented performances with his closest musical partners and friends such as Martha Argerich, Daniil Trifonov, Mischa Maisky, Sergey Khachatryan, as well as Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. Further highlights of Babayan's 2019/20 season include first appearances with the Bamberg Symphony, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as duo concerts with Daniil Trifonov in the USA and recitals featuring works by J. S. Bach and Chopin. His plans for the upcoming season include appearances at the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia in September, Montreal Bach Festival in November, and Verbier Festival in July 2021; Grieg's Piano Concerto in Brussels with the Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie and Alain Altinoglu; and Bach's Goldberg Variations in Meiningen and Leipzig. 7/2020