Vardan Mamikonian
The French-Armenian pianist, Vardan Mamikonian was born into a musical family. He began his piano studies at the Yerevan Spendiarian School of Music with Arkui Haroutunian. He continued his studies at the Moscow Central Music School and at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he became a student of Valery Kastelsky, one of the last pupils of the legendary teacher Heinrich Neuhaus.
Further studies followed with Lazar Berman at the Piano Academia in Imola, Italy. Since 1991 Mamikonian has made his home in Paris, France. In 1992 he was the winner of the World Music Masters Competition in Monte Carlo, reserved exclusively for winners of international competitions.
Vardan Mamikonian has attracted the attention of the press and the international public with his elegant technique and superb musicianship.
In the United States he has appeared with orchestras such as the Atlanta, San Francisco, Detroit, Pacific, Houston and National Symphony of Washington D.C., and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl.
Highlights of past seasons include performances in Turin, Italy with Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI under Eliahu Inbal, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Royal Philharmonic Stockholm, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Berlin Symphony and Philharmonique de Radio France. He has been a guest at festivals such as Verbier, Ravinia, La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival, the Hong-Kong Arts Festival, Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts in Fresno(California)and the St. Moritz Festival.
Mamikonian has played recitals at the Musikverein in Vienna, at the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Herkulessaal in Munich, Wigmore Hall in London, the Tonhalle in Zurich, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., among others. Other engagements have included performances as soloist in Germany and Holland with the Kirov Orchestra, performances at the Grande Theatre Shanghai, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Philharmonie in Munich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, under conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Andrey Boreyko, Vladimir Fedoseev, Robert Spano, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Laurent Petitgirard and Leonard Slatkin.
Vardan Mamikonian has recorded extensively for radio and television and has made also numerous recordings for the German label Orfeo. Several of these recordings have received awards from the international press.
During the season 2017-2018 Vardan Mamikonian appeared in prestigious concert series in France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerlan, Czech Republic and Germany.
