Award-Winning Armenian Cellist Joins Pasadena Symphony for First Concerts of the New Year

Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan will be performing as a soloist with the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra for the first concerts of the New Year, under the direction of Jorge Mester. Hakhnazaryan appears in The Embassy Series in Washington, DC, with Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute and the Bedford Chamber Concert Series (NY), at the Morgan Library and Museum, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (IL), Princeton University, and with the Howland Chamber Music and Cultural Center (NY).

Last season, Mr. Hakhnazaryan’s appearances included the Young Concert Artists Festival in Tokyo and two performances in Boston’s Symphony Hall: with the Boston Pops in Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with Maestro Erich Kunzel, and presented by Boston’s Celebrity Series, performing the Schumann Cello Concerto with conductor Hugh Wolff and the NEC Philharmonia. He has performed as soloist with the Long Bay, Fort Smith and Westmoreland symphonies, and in recital at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, for the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series, the University of Florida, Vanguard Concerts, Congregation Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh, the University of Georgia, Candlelight Concerts, Missouri State University, the Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia, Saint Vincent College, Lincoln County Concert Association, Patrons for Young Artists, The Paramount Theatre, and The Colonial Theatre.

As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Hakahnazaryan debuted in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, sponsored by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Prize, and at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC.

Mr. Hakhnazaryan has participated in Ravinia’s Steans Institute for Young Artists and received scholarships from the Rostropovich Russian Performing Arts Fund which brought him concerts in Russia, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Great Britain, Greece, Turkey and Canada. His prizes include Fifth Prize at the 2007 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow, First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia, and First Place in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players.

Mr. Hakhnazaryan was born in 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians: his father is a violinist and his mother is a pianist. His early studies were at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan. At the age of 12, Mr. Hakhnazaryan began studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov. Working with Lawrence Lesser, he is pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music. Mr. Hakhnazaryan plays a 1698 David Tecchler cello, on loan from Valentine Saarmaa, granddaughter of the renowned luthier Jacques Francais.