Karen Hakobyan is a talented Armenian pianist and composer. He studied with Arkady Aronov at Mannes College of Music, and successfully competed in a number of piano competitions (in 2010 he won the Bronze Medal in the International Piano Competition in Cincinatti). He has played with the Armenian Philharmonic and National Chamber Orchestras, the Salt Lake Symphony, the New American Symphony and the World Festival Orchestra. He also participated in a number of festivals, including the Lille International Piano Festival in France and was featured at the "Keys to the Future" Contemporary Music Concert Series in 2009 and 2010 in New York City. Here is Karen's performance of Rachmaninov's Etude Tableaux Op. 33 No. 5.

Karen is the winner of the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Competition. He has composed numerous orchestral works, and also music for chamber groups and solo pieces for violin and piano. His compositions have been performed in Europe and the United States. You can listen to Karen's Symphony No. 2 Op. 6 here. It is performed by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

On March 1, 2011 an Evening of Music by Karen Hakobyan will take place in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall where Karen and a group of young musician will perform his music. The performers will include: Karen Hakobyan and Gabriel Escudero, piano; Guillaume Molko, Stani Dimitrova, and Clara Lyon, violin; Christine Carter, clarinet; Emi Ferguson, flute; Kim Mai Nguyen, viola, Amber Docters Van Leeuwen, cello; and Katharine Dain, soprano.

February 28, 2011

Chopin and Vivaldi. March 1st is generally regarded as the birthday of the great Polish composer, although records are not clear and some believe that he was born on February 22, 1810. A son of a poor Frenchman from Lorraine, Chopin himself settled in France in 1831 after learning that the Polish uprising against the Russian empire has been crushed. He lived in France the remaining 18 years of his short life. A professed Polish patriot, he was affected by the music of the country of his birth (he wrote 58 mazurkas and 18 polonaises), but though he traveled all around Europe as a concert pianist, he never set foot in Poland again. The world celebrated Frederic Chopin's 200th anniversary last year, and we joined with an extensive playlist. This year we'll present just four pieces: Ballade no. 1, performed by Gabriele Baldocci, then two etudes no. 11, the first one from opus 10, played by Daniel del Pino, another from opus 25, performed by Irina Klyuev. We'll conclude with the finale of the Cello sonata op. 65. The cellist is Camille Thomas, she's accompanied by Beatrice Berrut. To listen, click here.

Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in Venice. One of the most important composers in the history of classical music (consider his influence on Johann Sebastian Bach) he's often regarded as the composer of the Four Seasons. In reality, the list of his compositions is enormous. He wrote almost 50 operas and 500 concertos for such instruments as violin, flute, cello, bassoon, oboe, and many others. Here is his Concerto for strings in C Major, RV 114. It's performed by Baroque Band, with David Shrader on the harpsichord.

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