ARA HARUTYUNYAN WINS UW’S JACOBY SOLOIST COMPETITION
University of Wyoming News
March 6 2013
March 6, 2013 – Violin virtuoso Ara Harutyunyan of Yerevan, Armenia,
was named the winner of the University of Wyoming’s Dorothy Jacoby
Student Soloist Competition March 1, at the Fine Arts concert hall.
His performance of the first movement of the Brahms “Violin Concerto,”
with the UW Symphony Orchestra, was selected by the judges as the
best performance among six soloists and earned him a $2,500 cash
prize. The six were selected from nearly 40 UW music students who
auditioned in December in the competition’s first round.
The other finalists were percussionist Evan Bradley, a senior from
Gillette; pianist Mei Lian, a graduate student from Shanghai, China;
soprano Alison Rickard, a senior from Laramie; Elizabeth Szott, a
senior from Cheyenne who plays euphonium; and saxophonist Tak Chiu
Wong, a graduate student from Hong Kong.
Harutyunyan is pursuing a performer’s certificate in violin performance
at UW, where he studies with Professor John Fadial. His parents
are both musicians who influenced his career choice. He began to
play violin when he was 8 and participated in recitals, concerts,
master-classes, festivals and competitions, where he was awarded
prizes as a young musician.
>>From 1994-2004, Harutyunyan studied at the Tchaikovsky Special Music
School in Yerevan. He attended Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory for
his undergraduate study with Professor Armen Harutyunyan, and in 2009,
he completed his bachelor’s degree in music.
He also studied at Switzerland’s Zurich University of the Arts with
Professor Rudolf Koelman; was a member of the Yerevan String Quartet
as a first violinist; and, in 2009, he earned a first violin section
position with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2011, Harutyunyan moved to the United States to study at UW, where
he holds the Charles Moore M.D. Concertmaster Fellowship. He also
teaches violin and viola with the UW String Project, and recently
was named assistant concertmaster with the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra.
The Dorothy Jacoby Student Soloist Competition provides an opportunity
for UW’s best music students to appear as soloists with the UW
Symphony. It also offers a significant award to the musician judged
to have given the best performance that evening.
Jacoby was a founding member of the Symphony Association for UW
and a longtime supporter of classical music in Laramie. Her sons,
Peter and Michael Jacoby, made a generous contribution in honor of
their late mother. That gift, along with contributions from many of
Dorothy’s friends, created the endowment for the cash prize that is
awarded at the performance.
The judges were Masakazu Ito, classical guitarist from Denver; James
Margetts, professor of piano at Chadron State College; and Joseph
Martin, conductor of the Wind Ensemble at the University of Denver. UW
Department of Music Professor Michael Griffith conducted the concert.
Photo: Violinist Ara Harutyunyan of Yerevan, Armenia, won the
University of Wyoming’s recent Dorothy Jacoby Student Soloist
Competition. (Yulia Yarkhunova Photo)
http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2013/03/ara-harutyunyan-wins-uws-jacoby-soloist-competition.html