YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. At the invitation of the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia, a solo concert of the talented pianist, first prize winner and laureate of a number of international competitions Sergei Babayan (USA), dedicated to the memory of his teacher Georgi Sarajev, will be held at the Yerevan Aram Khachatrian concert hall on February 20. Works of Messiaen, List, Rachmaninov, Pyart, Wayne and Bach will be performed. As Noyan Tapan was informed from the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia, the charitable concert of the philharmonic orchestra dedicated to the Yerevan old-aged pensioners' home, will be held at the Aram Khachatrian concert hall on February 24. Sergei Babayan will perform Sergei Prokofyev's piano concert N 2. Pyotr Chaykovski's symphony N 5 will be performed in the second part of the concert, conducted by Eduard Topchian. Sergei Babayan is a world-famous pianist. His teachers were Luiza Margarian and professor Georgi Sarajev (Yerevan), Vera Gornostayeva, Lev Naumov, Mikhail Pletnyov and Lev Vlasenko (Moscow). For the purpose of studying Bach's music in depth, he attended classes of Helmut Riling. He won the first prizes in the international competitions of Robert Casadesus (formely Cleveland's International competition, 1990), Palm Beach (1990), Hamamatsu (1991), Scottish (1992). He is also a laureate of international competitions of Queen Elizabeth, Busoni, Esther Honens (Canada). He made concert tours in Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America and USA. He performed concerts in the most authoritative concert halls (Paris Gaveau, London Wigmore Hall, New York Carnegie Hall, Moscow Conservatory Big Hall, etc.). He took part in famous festivals of France, Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Spain, USA. His concerts were broadcast on TV-radio stations such as WQXR, WCLV, Radio France, Polish Radio, BBC-TV and NHK, and many sound recordings were done. Sergei Babayan cooperated with the best orchestras of the world under the guidance of famous conductors (Yuri Temirkanov, Neeme Yarvi, Hans Graf, David Robertson, Kazimiergh Kord Michael Christi and many other conductors). The repertoire of the pianist is large: 45 concerts written for the piano and orchestra and other works. Sergei Babayan is also a conductor. At the invitation of Valeri Gergiev, S.Babayan will take part in the "White Nights" festival of Saint Petersburg in 2006 summer, at which he will perform the piano concert of Lyutoslavski. "Consumate sound, harmony of phrasing and surprising virtuosity... His performance directly speaks with the listener", the authoritative French "Figaro" newspaper wrote about S.Babayan.

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