Sergei Babayan

Charity Concert in Tribute to Pavel Kushnir with Sergei Babayan and Grigory Sokolov

On November 18, a benefit concert will bring together two of the greatest contemporary pianists, Sergei Babayan and Grigory Sokolov, at Salle Cortot in Paris. This event, organized in tribute to Pavel Kushnir, a brilliant pianist who tragically passed away in prison in July 2024, will be held in support of the agency of artists in exile.

The tribute concert to Pavel Kushnir offers a unique opportunity to celebrate his courage and demonstrate the solidarity of leading musicians of our time in the face of injustice and barbarism. Babayan and Sokolov will perform a program of works by Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff.

Ahead of the November 18 concert, a collection of prominent musicians have released the following Statement of Support:

As musicians, we wish to voice our support for all artists throughout the world who are oppressed, and sometimes forced into exile. Pavel Kushnir chose internal exile and had the courage to speak out against war. He paid with his life.

We will be in spirit at the concert given by Grigory Sokolov and Sergei Babayan in Paris on 18th November and join wholeheartedly in this homage to Pavel which is also an expression of solidarity with all artists suffering repression today.

Signed by Martha Argerich, Alexeï Aiguï, Leif Ove Andsnes, Jacques Attali, Emanuel Ax, Daniel Barenboim, Elena Bashkirova, Andrey Boreyko, Yefim Bronfman, Semyon Bychkov, Renaud Capuçon, Adam Fischer, Daniele Gatti, Kirill Gerstein, Richard Goode, Maria Gortsevskaya, Ilya Gringolts, Augustin Hadelich, Thomas Hampson, Barbara Hannigan, Pablo Heras-Casado, Janine Jansen, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Evgeny Kissin, Alexander Korsantia, Gidon Kremer, Dmitri Kourliandski, Igor Levit, Elena Lisitsian, Alexei Lubimov, Fabio Luisi, Mischa Maisky, Alexander Melnikov, Julian Milkis, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria Nemtsova, Polina Osetinskaya, Sir Antonio Pappano, Dina Parakhina, Kirill Petrenko, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Beatrice Rana, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Donald Runnicles, Andreas Scholl, Olga Shkrygunova, Katia Skanavi, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Dima Slobodeniouk, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Alexandre Tharaud, Christian Thielemann, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Elena Toponogova, Victorien Vanoosten, Franz Welser-Möst, Lilya Zilberstein.

All ticket proceeds and funds raised will be donated to the agency of artists in exile, a Paris-based NGO supporting creators forced into exile due to conflicts or political repression in their home countries. By honoring Pavel's memory, this event aims to support all artists fighting for their values and freedom.

The concert is organized by the Aùrion Association and the record label Little Tribeca. Find tickets and additional details here.

2024/25 Season Highlights

Combining solo works with piano transcriptions of songs by composers from Schubert, Schumann, and Rachmaninoff to Harold Arlen, Charles Trenet, and Armenian folk hero Komitas, Sergei Babayan’s thoughtfully curated new solo program, “Songs,” explores the evolution of lieder, folksong, and the elusive art of melody. “Songs” figures prominently in Babayan’s 2024-25 lineup, with recitals at Tulane University in New Orleans (Feb 27), at London’s state-of-the-art new venue Bechstein Hall (March 15), and in Madrid (May 21), Málaga (June 7), and both Pinerolo (Oct 8) and Pistola (Jan 13) in Italy.

This season, Babayan performs Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto with Naples’s Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo (May 4) and the same composer’s Third with five different orchestras: Maryland’s National Philharmonic at Strathmore (Sep 14), Belgium’s Antwerp Symphony, led by its Chief Conductor, Elim Chan (Dec 13), Germany’s Hagen Philharmonic (March 11), and both the Orchestre symphonique de l’Opéra de Toulon (Sep 19) and Orchestre symphonique de Tours (Feb 1 & 2) in France. In the fall, Babayan’s recital schedule also takes him to Dortmund, Germany, for a performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Oct 31).

Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto is a profound and monumental work that dates from the composer’s maturity. Another work that features prominently in Babayan’s programming this season, this takes him to Poland for performances with the Baltic Philharmonic (Nov 22), Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic (Nov 8), and NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, with which he reprises the work in Dresden (May 10 & 11).

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth. To celebrate this milestone, Babayan joins the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano and conductor Emmanuel Tjeknavorian for accounts of the French composer’s two piano concertos, on a program that also features the pianist’s solo performance of Ravel’s Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn, written to commemorate an earlier anniversary: the centennial of the Viennese composer’s death (April 4 & 6). Tjeknavorian is also an accomplished violinist, whom Babayan partners with for a program of duo sonatas by Mozart, Prokofiev, and Janàček at the Auditorium di Milano (April 5).

Babayan completes his orchestral lineup with two Mozart concertos, performing the “Jeunehomme” with Lithuania’s Kremerata Baltica, first at the ensemble’s Vilnius home (Nov 26) and then on a tour of Italy (May 13–18), and the Concerto for Two Pianos at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival. There Babayan will be joined by his former student and frequent piano partner Daniil Trifonov, with Christoph Eschenbach leading the Verbier Festival Orchestra (July 22). A dedicated chamber artist, Babayan’s remaining engagement of the season is with violinist Mihaela Martin and cellist Truls Mørk, whom he joins for an evening of piano trios at Germany’s Kronberg Academy (Dec 6).

21C Welcomes Sergei Babayan

Sergei Babayan is thrilled to announce that he is now represented by 21C Media Group for press and digital media; his worldwide management remains with Felsner Artists. Having devoted decades to his distinguished teaching career, the Armenian American pianist is now expanding his own presence on the international stage. Over the coming months, he performs Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with Thailand’s Royal Bangkok Symphony (Aug 24), France’s Orchestre symphonique de l’Opéra de Toulon (Sep 19), and Belgium’s Antwerp Symphony, led by its Chief Conductor, Elim Chan (Dec 13 & 14). He previews “Songs,” an imaginatively curated new solo recital program, in England, South Korea, and China, before touring it extensively next season.

Babayan is active in the States this summer. He performs Mozart’s Ninth Piano Concerto, the “Jeunehomme,” at Maine’s Bowdoin International Music Festival (Aug 2) and gives solo recitals at Colorado’s International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival (Aug 6) and Canada’s Vancouver Piano Sessions (Aug 9). These August engagements follow returns earlier this season to Bravo! Vail, where his residency combined a solo recital with a program of Rachmaninoff piano duos, performed with his former student and frequent duo partner Daniil Trifonov, and the Aspen Music Festival, where he and Trifonov reprised their program. “The firepower they achieved together is rare among piano duos,” writes the New York Times of their partnership, while BBC Music magazine hails their recent recording of Rachmaninoff’s duos as “a winning mix of limitless pianism, deep knowledge and visionary boldness.”

Learn more here.

Summer Performance Highlights

This month, Sergei Babayan travels to Brazil for performances of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Xian Zhang (June 13-15). On June 25, Babayan joins Daniil Trifonov to open Bravo! Vail’s Chamber Music Series with an all-Rachmaninoff program featuring two pianos, followed by a solo performance at the festival on June 27, before reprising his duo program with Trifonov at Aspen Music Festival on June 29.

On July 30, Babayan plays a program as part of the Oxford Piano Festival that includes works by Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Gershwin, and others. August begins with Mozart’s Ninth Piano Concerto, the “Jeunehomme,” at Maine’s Bowdoin International Music Festival (Aug 2) and a solo performance at The International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival in Fort Collins, CO (August 6). On August 9, he plays a concert at the Vancouver Piano Sessions, before heading to Asia for performances of his “Songs” recital program in Bangkok (August 24), Shanghai (August 28), and Seoul (August 30).

New DG Release “Rachmaninoff for Two”

Sergei Babayan and Daniil Trifonov released their first full album of piano duets on March 29. “Rachmaninoff for Two” contains performances of the composer’s two Suites for two pianos and the two-piano version of his Symphonic Dances, together with Trifonov’s own transcription of the Adagio from Symphony No. 2. Released by Deutsche Grammophon digitally and on 2 CDs, the album pays tribute to one of the world’s most beloved pianist-composers, as part of this year’s Rachmaninoff 150 celebrations. The duo recorded “Rachmaninoff for Two” at the Vienna Konzerthaus soon after performing there in May 2023 as part of their acclaimed series of Rachmaninoff concerts across Europe.

“It’s a gift to have Daniil next to me onstage in this extraordinary music, because you feel there’s someone there who understands you, without looking, without words,” says Babayan, long-time friend and mentor to Trifonov. “Maybe it’s because we spent time together as teacher and student, but I don’t think that is necessarily so. It was there from the first lesson, when he brought Chopin and we began working. I had the feeling that he took more from me in two weeks than people who had studied with me for five years.”

Listen to the album >here.

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