Fresno Bee (California)
April 12, 2005, Tuesday FINAL EDITION
Pianist to play with Philharmonic
The Fresno Bee
Pianist Sergei Babayan returns to Fresno this weekend to perform with
the Fresno Philharmonic for a concert dubbed “Babayan Plays Brahms.”
Babayan, who played in Fresno earlier this season as part of the
Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts Series, will play Brahms’
Piano Concerto No. 2.
Babayan was born in a small town in the former Soviet Armenia, and he
moved to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, when he was 3 and already
playing the piano. His father took him to Moscow for piano lessons
during his teen years, and he eventually entered the Moscow
Conservatory.
It wasn’t until the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union broke
up, in 1989, that Babayan came to the United States.
He came first to Cleveland, where he won first place in the
prestigious Robert Casadesus Competition, which led to other
competitions, and an international career.
Babayan, who runs the Sergei Babayan International Piano Academy at
the Cleveland Institute of Music, also appeared earlier in Fresno, in
1991 with Fresno Philharmonic under Andrew Massey, and again in 2003
with the philharmonic under Kuchar.
The all-Romantic program this weekend also will feature Dvorak’s
Slavonic Dances and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
The concerts will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Philharmonic executive director David Gaylin will begin his Inside
Music talks one hour before each concert.
Disclaimer: This article was contributed and translated into English by Emil Lazarian. While we strive for quality, the views and accuracy of the content remain the responsibility of the contributor. Please verify all facts independently before reposting or citing.
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