Piano recital with Hayk Melikyan

The Pharos Arts Foundation is proud to present, Hayk Melikyan, one of the most sought-after pianists of the younger generation. Melikyan will present an exciting programme of works by Takemitsu, Berio, Karksy/Melikyan, Xenakis, Stravinsky, Part, Babadjanyan and Dellalian. The recital will take place on Friday 18 April 2011, at The Shoe Factory / 8.30pm.

Hayk Melikyan (piano)

"You say a festive feeling of existence or а sheer joy of living… I think that the above mentioned feelings and similar luxuries are deeply possessed by Hayk Melikyan at the moments whenever he plays piano. These are the moments when he equally performs both as a pianist and a composer. The remaining time he dedicates to the maturing of these moments. Nothing could be more wonderful than a talent of creation of mirth for one’s own soul, possession of it and sharing with those people who are able to seize it." Tigran Mansouryan

"Hayk Melikyan, is a pianist with a strongly individual personality and a carrier of the great traditions of Russian piano school, specifically that of Felix Blumenfeld and Konstantin Igumnov. Its synthesis gives most interesting and fruitful results. From his very first performances, Hayk Melikyan has attracted the attention of the musical world by his great technical potential and the original intellectual meaning he gives to the musical images,” Irina Tigranova, musicologist.

Hayk Melikyan was born in Yerevan in 1980. He first studied the piano with Irina Grishinskaya, and later at the the Yerevan State Conservatory with professor Alexander Gurgenov, with whom he also completed a post-graduate course in 2005. His concert début took place at the Concerto Di Concerti International Festival of the 20th Century Music in Rome. Melikyan leads an active concert life, playing in Armenia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands. His performances have various formats: he plays as a soloist, with chamber ensembles and Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra. His repertoire contains an impressive variety of styles, epochs and schools; he performs the works of European, Russian and Armenian composers alike, classical as well as romantic.

After having won the second prize in the International Piano Competition of 20th century and contemporary music Premio Valentino Bucchi in Rome in 2000, he has included contemporary music as a leading part of his concert programmes. In 2008, Hayk Melikyan was granted the Samson Francois special prize at the Orléans international piano competition in France.. He is the first performer of many Armenian and foreign composers in Armenia and abroad. This activity led him to an idea of initiating a concert series on The 20th Century and Contemporary World Piano Music.

It is worth mentioning about the valuable achievements of Hayk Melikyan in Composition: he is the composer of many chamber-instrumental, vocal works as well as symphonic and chorus music. His piano transcriptions, concert paraphrases and arrangements are among the favorite ones in the repertoires of many pianists: Khovanshina by M.Mussorgsky, Aleko by S.Rachmaninov, The Rite of Spring by I.Stravinsky, Fire Ring by A.Terteryan, Anoush by A.Tigranyan and many Armenian folk and medieval spiritual songs.

Hayk Melikyan’s lively activity is accurately described by the Armenian musicologist Margarita Rukhkyan: “He is the embodiment of permanent self-perfection. One can easily feel that he is an independent artist, his own master. It is hard for any composer to trust a work to a performer. Hayk Melikyan is the one whom the Composers grant their works with confidence that the performance by Mr. Melikyan will be the best one. We can surely call Mr. Melikyan a successor of music traditions founded by Franz Liszt which combines the whole entourage of piano mastery: performance, composing creativity and improvisation.”