Nareh Arghamanyan

Nareh Arghamanyan (born in Vanadzor, 1989) is an Armenian pianist trained at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna under Heinz Medjimorec. She is best known for winning the 2008 Montreal International Musical Competition.

“Elegance, humour, deliciously burbling trills and fiery imagination. This introduced me to a major, major, major talent. … Pianists don’t come any better than Nareh Arghamanyan. Another potential superstar has arrived!”

H. Goldsmith, Musical America and American Record Guide

In her early twenties Nareh Arghamanyan, winner of the 2008 Montreal International Music Competition, belongs to the promising young generation of today’s fine pianists.

She gets outstanding critics for her performances such as “La Scena Musicale” “From the first chord on, it was clear that she was an artist to be reckoned with. She has a big technique, but her playing was not just about technique-it was also about playing the music. Her playing was as poetic and it was prodigious technically. Here we have a complete artist-at 19! and LeDevoir “Certains se demandent déjà si on ne dira pas un jour Nareh comme on dit Martha.”

The season 2009/10 saw Nareh Arghamanyan making an impressive New York debut at the Frick collection as well as at San Francisco Performances, resulting in a reinvitation to their “Young Master Series” in 2011. Further recitals include Miami, Detroit, Minneapolis, Kansas City, San Juan and Fresno. In concert she performed Saint-Sa?ns 5th concerto with the Winnipeg Symphony, the Saint-Sa?ns 2nd and Mozart double concerto with I Musici de Montreal, and the “Emperor” concerto with the McGill Chamber Orchestra. Nareh Arghamanyan has appeared with the Mont Blanc Symphony France, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Armenian Philharmonic, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia.

Further afield Nareh Arghamanyan will perform with the Orchestre Metropolitan under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Vienna Symphony at the Bregenz Festival 2011 under Xian Zhang as well as the Vancouver Symphony with James Gaffigan. Recital highlights include her debut at the Portland International Piano Series as well as the Singapore International Piano Festival.

This past summer, Nareh Arghamanyan attended the prestigious Marlboro Festival, where she will return in 2011, as well as at Tanglewood music festival, Domaine Forget Quebec, the Festival International de Lanaudière and at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Nareh Arghamanyan has appeared at many festivals internationally including the Colmar Festival at the invitation of violinist Vladimir Spivakov, and a recital at Palais d’Athenée in Geneva. In 2006 she appeared on the Chamber Music San Francisco Music Series under the auspices of the Guzik Foundation, and in 2004 was soloist with the Mont Blanc Symphony France in the Grieg Piano Concerto. Recitals in 2003 brought Ms. Arghamanyan to New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington DC, and in 2002, highlight engagements included those with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, in Moscow, and with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia in Yerevan and Berlin

Most recently, the Analekta label released her recording of the Rachmaninov 2nd Sonata and Liszt B minor Sonata to great acclaim. La Scena Musicale wrote: “Arghamanyan meets the daunting demands of these two ultra-Romantic pieces with a combination of technical bravura, singing tone, and poetic expression…the Liszt is particularly memorable.”

Nareh Arghamanyan has won an impressive number of awards: she has been the 1st Prize recipient at the 2007 Piano Campus International Competition in Pontoise and took 2nd Prize at the 2007 Jose Roca International Competition in Valencia. In 2005 she won the Josef Dichler Piano Competition in Vienna, and the following year was awarded a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Foundation. Her first major recognition came at the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in Salt Lake City 2000 where, at the age of 11, she was the 2nd Prize winner, predicted by critics to have “ a major international career” and praised for her virtuosity and sense of artistry.

Born in 1989 in Armenia, Nareh Arghamanyan began her piano studies at the age of five. Three years later, she entered the Tchaikovsky Music School for Talented Children in Yerevan, where she studied with Alexander Gurgenov. In 2004 she was the youngest student to be admitted to the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she studied with Heinz Medjimorec .

Nareh Arghamanyan is a concert artist presented by Konzertdirektion Schmid and Arts Management group.

[edit]Competition prizes record

2009 “Sparkasse Wortersee” Competition in Austria 1st prize.

2008 Montreal International Musical Competition 1st prize.

2007 Piano Campus International piano competition, Pontoise. 1st prize.

2007 José Roca International piano competition, Valencia. 2nd prize.

2006 won the one-year scholarship award from the Herbert Von Karajan Foundation Vienna

2005 Dr. Josef Dichler competition Austria 1st prize

2003 Seiler Piano Competition, Kitzingen|Germany 4th prize

2000 Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition USA 2nd prize.

1999 Armenian Legacy, First National piano competition Armenia 1st prize.

1998 International Competition "Little Prince" for young talents in Zaporozhye, Ukraine 1st prize.

1997 International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Yugoslavia 1st prize.