Sergey Antonov & Karén Hakobyan: Franck, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Popper

5 PM Doors & Pre-Reception
6 PM Performance
7:30 PM Post-Reception

Sergey Antonov & Karén Hakobyan: Franck, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Popper

Gotham Arts in collaboration with Groupmuse is delighted to present an intimate private chamber music performance by cellist Sergey Antonov and pianist Karén Hakobyan featuring works by Franck, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Popper, and other composers.

Wine will be served.

Program:

RACHMANINOFF Élégie, Op. 3 No. 1

FRANCK Sonata in A Major

Intermission

KOMITAS VARDAPET (arr. KARÉN HAKOBYAN) "The Red Shawl"

TCHAIKOVSKY Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62

PIAZZOLA (arr. KARÉN HAKOBYAN) "Oblivion"

DAVID POPPER Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68

GASPAR CASSADO "Requiebros"

About the Artists

Watch Sergey and Karén perform Rachmaninoff's cello sonata

About Sergey Antonov

Grammy-nominated cellist Sergey Antonov enjoys a versatile career as a soloist and chamber musician. Critics throughout the world have hailed him as “destined for cello superstardom” -Washington Post, “combining formidable technique and an incredibly warm, penetrating and vibrant tone to a romantic musical sensibility to create music - making of a highest caliber” - Budapest Sun. After one of the Newport Festival concerts in RI, a critic wrote “... a performance with soaring phrases and a tone to die for.” Sergey’s performance of the Elgar concerto drew the critic of the Moscow’s Daily Telegraph to write: “[he] is a musician who has his own inner space, where he submerges himself from the very first sound…who turns each phrase, every deeply felt sound into an event of his own inner monologue. The theme of this monologue is existential suffering; a change of intricately noted emotions, directly related to the unexplainable condition known as Spiritual Life.” A Canadian critic wrote: “Antonov conveyed ...a world of expression from plaintive hope to existential pathos.”

One of the recent reviewers wrote, “ No virtuosic challenge is more than his equal.”

After winning the Gold Medal in the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Russia, Sergey has been touring extensively throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America performing in halls ranging from the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory to Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has collaborated with musicians such as Denis Matsuev, Bernadene Blaha, Kevin Fitz Gerald, Ekaterina Mechetina, Harve A’ Kaoua, Carl Ponten, Dora Schwartzberg, John Lenehan, Colin Carr, Cynthia Phelps, Martin Chalifour, David Chan, among others, as well as his permanent piano partner Ilya Kazantsev. The duo has recorded several CDs of traditional cello-piano repertoire as well as their own transcriptions, recorded in their CD album Elegy.

Sergey is a member of the acclaimed Hermitage Piano Trio with Ilya Kazantsev and violinist Misha Keylin.

In addition to being the 2007 Tchaikovsky gold medal winner for cello, Antonov has been a recipient of the 2008 Golden Talent Award by the Russian Performing Arts Foundation as well as garnering top prizes at the Justuz Friedrich Dotzhauer Competition, Germany, David Popper International Cello Competition, Hungary, American String Teachers Association in Detroit. His chamber ensemble performances have also brought him honors from the Lyrica Chamber Music Series as their “Young Artist of the Year”, and First Prizes from the Chamber Music Foundation of New England and the Swedish International Duo Competition.

Antonov collaborated with such maestros as Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitry Sitkovetsky Yan Pascal Tortilier, Mikhail Pletnev, Maxim Vengerov, Oue Eiji, Yuri Simonov, Christopher Zimmerman, Uri Bashmet, Jonathan McPhee, Yuri Botnari, Alexey Shabalin, among many others. He has made his conducting debut in the spring of 2014. Sergey frequently gives master classes to solo cellists and chamber music groups in colleges and universities throughout the world.

Born into a family of cellists, Sergey started playing cello at the age of five with his mother, Maria Zhuravleva, as his teacher. She has recently become the recipient of the National 2014 Teacher of the Year Award of Russia. He has studied at the Central Music School and has graduated from the Moscow Conservatory where studied under the renowned professor Natalia Shakhovskaya.

He holds an Artist Diploma from Longy School of Music in Boston where he worked with Grammy nominated cellist Terry King. While being a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Sergey was under the tutelage of M. Rostropovich.

Sergey has appeared on Russian National Television in performances with the Moscow Philharmonic in their “Stars of the 21st Century” series, and in live concerts on Boston’s NPR radio station WGBH. His performances were also broadcast by NHK Japan.

He lives in New York with his wife Nika and son Noah.

About Karén Hakobyan

Armenian-American pianist and composer Karén Hakobyan has emerged as a versatile force on the international musical scene. Since his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of seventeen, he has been performing in major concert halls in Armenia, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, France, Japan and the United States. Mr. Hakobyan appeared as a soloist in North America with the World Peace Sinfonietta, the University of Utah Philharmonia, the Salt Lake Symphony, Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, the New American Symphony, Ridgewood Symphony, Ureuk Symphony Orchestra and the World Festival Orchestra and internationally with the Tucuman Philharmonic Orchestra (Argentina), the Monterrey Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Serenade Chamber Orchestra, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia.

Karén won Bronze Medal in the World Piano International Competition, 1st prize in the Pinault International Audiotape - Videotape Piano Competition and 2nd prize in the Armenian Legacy Pianists International Piano Competition. He has also won 1st prize in the Four Corners Piano Competition, and The Fite Piano Competition. He was a winner of the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Competition. Of his March 2011 Carnegie Hall composition debut, David LaMarche (New York Concert Review) praised Karén as “a musician of abundant gifts and bountiful ideas.”

Karén regularly appears in prestigious festivals and concert series. Some of his festival performance highlights include: the "Lille International Piano(s) Festival" in France in 2005, "The Pianist as Composer" Festival at Mannes College of Music in 2008 and "The Mendelssohn Salon Yearlong Festival" in 2009 in New York City and Gina Bachauer International Festival in 2014 in Utah.

He was also featured at "Keys to the Future" Contemporary Music Concert Series in 2009 and 2010 in New York City. His performance of Vuk Kulenovic's "Virginal" in Le Poisson Rouge on the closing night of the "Keys to the Future" festival was described as "sensitively rendered" by New York Times. He was also featured in three special concerts during Carnegie Hall’s 2010-2011 season.

Highlights from Karén’s 2016- 2017 concert season include guest appearances with the Japan Sinfonia (Tokyo, Japan), Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra (Beirut, Lebanon), Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra (Yerevan, Armenia) and the Imperial Orchestra (Montreal, Canada) as well as solo recitals in Japan, Argentina, France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Mr. Hakobyan's performances have been broadcasted on WQXR New York's Classical Radio Station, WMFT Chicago’s Classical Radio Station, Argentine National Radio, Monterrey’s (Mexico) Op. 102 Radio Station, Utah Public Radio 89.5 FM and on Armenian National Radio. His live performance of Khatchaturian Piano Concerto in Muza Kawasaki Hall in Tokyo with Mahler Festival Orchestra as well as selections from his solo recital in Ichigaya Hall will be released on Altus Cd Label in Japan in 2017.

Karén is the Founder and Artistic Director of Pegasus: The Orchestra based in New York City and is also the Cultural Program Advisor of Armenia Fund, USA.

What's the music?

Pegasus: The Orchestra Cello and Piano

Attendees

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