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Hayk Melikyan is recognized internationally as one of the most versatile and imaginative performers of the 20th Century and Contemporary Music and among today's most engaging virtuoso pianists by classical music audiences and critics. He started playing piano when he was six with Irina Grishinskaya. Later he continued his professional studies with Professor Alexander Gourgenov at the Yerevan Komitas Conservatory. During his studies, he took masterclasses from Oxana Yablonskaya, Paul Badura-Skoda, Earl Wild, and Fou Ts'Ong. Hayk Melikyan's international concert début took place at the Concerto di Concerti International Festival of the 20th Century Music in Rome in 2000. He leads an active concert life, playing throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas on prestigious stages such as Geneva’s Victoria Hall, Lisbon Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, etc.
Hayk Melikyan is a laureate of International Piano Competitions, such as Concours d’Orléans (France), Ibla Grand Prize (Italy), Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music (USA), Premio Valentino Bucchi (Italy), etc. The Armenian Musical Assembly awarded Hayk Melikyan the esteemed Komitas Medal in 2008 and Moscow Composers Union awarded the Pianist a Golden Medal for his contribution and promotion of World Contemporary Music in 2012. In 2013, Hayk Melikyan received the Title of an Honorary Artist of Armenia. BBC Music Magazine named Hayk Melikyan "a Musical Hero for his promotion of contemporary music." His solo album "Arutiuanian: Complete Piano Works" by Naxos Grand Piano was selected as The Best Classical Music Album of the Year at the National Music Award 2018.
He is the first performer of numerous works by many composers of our time and dozens of pieces have been specially written for Hayk Melikyan. In 2009, this activity led the Pianist to create a series of concerts called 1900+, dedicated to 20th-century and contemporary world piano music. In July 2020, Hayk Melikyan launched a new initiative named 2000+, which aims to propagate the music of exclusively our time. In 2024, Hayk Melikyan was honored with the Golden Medal of the Armenian Ministry of Science, Education, Culture, and Sports upon the 15th anniversary of 1900+.
Hayk Melikyan regularly holds piano master classes around the world and performs at the Festival de Valmagne (France), Festival de Musique en Côte de Nacre (France), Festival O/MODƏRNT (Sweden), Warsaw Royal Arcades of Art Festival (Poland), San Leo Music Festival (Italy), Les Musicales de Baabdath International Music Festival (Lebanon), Penderecki Contemporary Classics' Festival and Aram Khachaturian International Music Festival (Armenia), etc. Many of them target contemporary music: Pharos Contemporary Music Festival (Cyprus), Lviv Contrasts Contemporary Music Festival (Ukraine), Kyiv GogolFest International Festival of Contemporary Art (Ukraine), Sofia ppIANISSIMO Contemporary Piano Music Festival (Bulgaria), Nuovi Spazi Musicali Festival (Italy), etc.
Hayk Melikyan has collaborated with renowned performers, composers and conductors such as Edgar Moreau, Kristóf Baráti, Hugo Ticciati, Francesco Dillon, György Kurtág, Pēteris Vasks, Tigran Mansurian, Krzysztof Penderecki, Valery Gergiev, Gianluca Marcianò, Diego Martin-Etxebarria and others.
As a composer, Hayk Melikyan is an author of piano solo, chamber, instrumental, vocal, and symphonic works. The piano transcriptions, concert paraphrases, and arrangements by Hayk Melikyan are among the favorite ones in the repertoires of many pianists worldwide. |
