According to WT officials, the festival is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Aug. 12 with a concert featuring Armenian concert pianist Dr. Hayk Arsenyan in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall on WT’s Canyon campus. Admission is free. For more information, call 806-641-2840.
Organizer Mila Abbasova, instructor of music theory and piano, is Armenian by birth but grew up in Azerbaijan.
“I grew up in a very international atmosphere, and my piano teacher was a very famous Armenian,” Abbasova said. “We always played music from Eastern Europe, but I never actually performed Armenian music in recital, so this is a very special concert for me. Music from my homeland touches my heart and brings memories back.”
The concert will also feature the WT Symphonic Band, directed by Don Lefevre, associate professor of music and director of bands, as well as performances by Jessica Schury Peckham, assistant professor of flute; Dr. Jenny Miller, adjunct professor of harp; and Kanani Crandall, WT alumna.
Arsenyan, a New York-based pianist and composer, has appeared in numerous recitals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas, in venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Salle Cortot (Paris), the Concourse (Sydney), Cadillac-Shanghai Concert Hall (China), Kumin Hall (Tokyo), Petranka Mozarteum (Prague), Auditorio Delibes (Valladolid), Dar-Al-Assad Opera House (Damascus), Sala Cervantes (Havana), MoBU (Sao Paolo), Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Philippines National Museum (Bacolod), and televised recitals at the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, the Phillips Collection Series in Washington, D.C., and at the Nixon Presidential Museum in Los Angeles.
At the age of 11, Arsenyan made his debut at the Armenian Philharmonic performing his own “Requiem” for the piano and orchestra. At the age of 17, he made his European debut as a soloist with the Radio France National Philharmonic Orchestra and was awarded a platinum medal by the City of Paris. In 2007, Arsenyan debuted at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall performing with Pinchas Zukerman and the Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia.
A long-time professor at New York University’s Tisch School, Arsenyan has presented guest lectures and masterclasses at universities and conservatories around the globe.