LEXINGTON, Mass. — Lexington resident and Grammy-nominated composer Hayg Boyadjian will be guest composer at two concerts in Europe. The first concert will take place in Brussels, Belgium on September 11, at 7 p.m. Several songs (Lieders) by Boyadjian for soprano and piano on German and French texts, and two solo piano pieces will be performed. The performers will include Miriam Mnatsakanyan, soprano, Lilit Khachatryan, soprano, Hasmik Asatryan, soprano, Anna Balaian, soprano, and Armen-Levon Manaseryan,piano.
After Belgium, Boyadjian will travel to Yerevan for the world premiere of his piano concerto, a complex and virtuoso composition in three movements (approximately half an hour long). The concert will take place on September 22 at 7 p.m. at the Opera and Ballet Concert Hall in Yerevan. The concert is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Armenia’s independence a result from the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The concert will also include works by the Yerevan native composer Edouard Sadoyan. Three works from Sadoyan will be performed by soloists singers, choir and orchestra. Short excerpts from his opera “Machtotz,” Artsakh sinfonia, and an excerpt from his ballet “Naregatzi.”
The concert will be conducted by Ruben Asatryan who has in previous years conducted several symphonic works of Boyadjian. The piano soloist for Boyadjian’s piano concerto will be the distinguished virtuoso pianist Julietta Vardanyan who performs with frequency in European countries and who has in the past performed Boyadjian’s works including his piano solo composition “Variations on a Theme by Bach”, which can be watched on YouTube.
Boyadjian has written about his piano concerto that “It is a composition that borrows musical idioms from western and eastern harmonic language. Both of which form [my] heritage. There is a constant melting down of both idioms that results in a new kaleidoscopic image of the aural experience. It is a work that requires constant awareness in listening to the shifts that occur as the musical mixture is bounced around from one viewpoint (or listening experience) to another where the west and the east clash or blend into one.”