Recently, the city of Nice in France hosted the 9th “Concours International de Piano de Nice Côte d’Azur” International Piano Competition where the sole Armenian representative, our Belgium-based compatriot Armen-Levon Manaseryan was awarded the first prize. Once, “Aravot” had introduced the pianist (“Aravot” Daily, 23.06.2016). Note that Armen-Levon Manaseryan studied at the State Conservatory after Komitas, in the class of Sergey Sarajyan, now he is continuing his education at the Royal Conservatory of Liege in Belgium, with Professors Etienne Rappe and François Tiri. Note that it is not only in the sports that our prominent athletes, to put it mildly, are giving a “good lesson” to Azerbaijani colleagues. In the spring, the young pianist became the laureate of the prestigious EPTA International Competition held in Brussels by pushing his Azerbaijani colleague out as a result of the competition.
This is not all. In an interview with “Aravot”, Armen-Levon assured that the competition booklet mistakenly put the word Armenian next to the name of Azerbaijani pianist which was corrected by the urging of our pianist. Caption- The Armenian pianist with Yoko Nano (Japan) and Joseph Paratore. During this meeting with the pianist, we asked to brief the progress of the Vitrage festival founded by him about one year ago. During the previous interview, the pianist had detailed the festival program from the beginning of the year until summer. To the point, this event in addition to music art also includes other sectors, like theater, painting and so on. The artist first noted that the festival is held with the Center for Russian Science and Culture Center in Brussels, the “Armenian Home” and the Armenian Embassy in Belgium, and then said that the Armenian theatre has arrived from Moscow by the invitation of the festival with two performances in September, and then singers Hasmik Asatryan, Maria Mnatsakanyan and Lilit Khachatryan from Armenia played, and his evening concert was attended by renowned American-Armenian composer from the United States, a “Grammy” nominee Haig Boyajian.
Our interlocutor also added, “On November 11, together with Hayk Sukiasyan we will perform Shostakovich’s piano and cello sonatas at the concert dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the composer, later in Brussels, at the “Armenian Home”, under the auspices of our Embassy, we have organized an evening concert dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Republic of Armenia.” Caption: Armen-Levon and Herbert Koch.
To the curiosity of whether the organizational matter of the festival will not hamper his career as a pianist, Armen-Levon Manaseryan said smiling that he manages also to attend the competitions and master classes, “In the recent period, I have also attended other competitions and become a laureate. I will single out the most prestigious ones: the 33rd Andre Charlie competition.
In the past two years, I attended the Salzburg Conservatory, Austrian, the Mozarteum Summer Academy where Professor Joseph Paratore was conducting master classes. He invited me to participate in the «Palazzo Ricci» master classes in Montepulciano city, Italy. I have participated in the VII International Hugo-Staehle-Festival for Young Pianists held in the German city of Kassel, in the framework of which I have also attended master classes at the famous pianist Herbert Koch. I would also like to mention my classes conducted by Irina Osipova, Alexander Khazanov, Shell-Woo Baen (South Korea), Michel Gioiosani (Italy), and Juro Tikvicani (Croatia).
Incidentally, by the invitation of Herbert Koch, this year, I also participated as a guest performer in his class concert which was held in one of the renowned halls of Germany, in Musikhochschule Munster University. To the observation conversation that during the interview you mentioned about your interpretations of European and Russian music, except for the Armenia, Armen-Levon Manaseryan answered briefly, “Armenian is an integral part of my performance art.”
Samvel DANIELYAN
“Aravot”
