Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan To Perform At The Squitieri Studio Theatre 10/26

The new Squitieri Studio Theatre (located inside the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts) offers the ideal intimate setting to showcase the talents of Narek Hakhnazaryan, the first of three talented Young Concert Artists coming to Gainesville during the 2009-10 Season. This virtuosic Armenian cellist will perform on October 26, 7:30 p.m.

Mr. Hahknazaryan has been lauded by The Washington Post as an artist who "produces a powerful and colorful sound in all registers, nails every big shift and flashes all the virtuoso's tricks with insolent ease."

A First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Hakhnazaryan made his debut recital in the Young Concert Artists Series at Carnegie's Zankel Hall in New York. He also appeared as soloist with the Westmoreland Symphony (PA), and in recitals at Saint Vincent College (PA), Lincoln County Concert Association (NC), Patrons for Young Artists (NY), The Paramount Theatre (VT) and The Colonial Theatre (MA).

Hakhnazaryan is a laureate of several international competitions, including First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia, First Place in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, and Fifth Prize at the 2007 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. He has received scholarships from the Rostropovich Russian Performing Arts Fund and has performed in Russia, Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Great Britain, Greece, Turkey and Canada.

Mr. Hakhnazaryan was born in 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians: His father is a violinist and his mother is a pianist. His early studies were at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan.

At the age of 12, Mr. Hakhnazaryan began studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov. Working with Lawrence Lesser, Narek Hakhnazaryan will pursue an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Young Concert Artists, Inc. was founded in 1961 as a nonprofit organization to discover and launch the careers of extraordinary young musicians. Many of today's greatest performers started their careers with Young Concert Artists including Emanuel Ax, Eugenia Zukerman, Chee-Yun and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.