NEW YORK — The Armenian Prelacy will host the 2025 Musical Armenia Concert on Sunday, March 9, at 2 p.m. at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. This marks the 40th concert in this series, which was launched in 1982.
The featured artists this year are the innovative composer/pianist Arno Melkonyan and the promising pianist Vartan Arakelian, who will perform music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Babadjanyan and Arno Melkonyan.
Established by Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian with the Prelacy Ladies Guild, Musical Armenia is dedicated to promoting young Armenian artists and to the performance of music by Armenian composers. Over the past forty-plus years many of the program’s performers have established solid professional and music-instruction careers. The Prelacy is very appreciative of the contribution that Musical Armenia’s devoted supporters have made in their artistic advancement.
Melkonyan will be accompanied by musicians Analuna Chahine (violin), Alisa Shin (violin), Minjun Seo (viola), Devin Connolly (cello) and Alireza Khodayari (tar).
A native of Yerevan, Melkonyan has lived in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. He began composing music while attending an international high school and subsequently studied with the composer David Balasanyan. Melkonyan’s creative approach blends music from the Late Romantic period with influences from pop, jazz and Armenian folk and chant traditions. He is currently a student in composition and games scoring at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.
Arakelian began piano studies at the age of 4 under the direction of Lilit Karapetian-Shougarian. Arakelian’s accomplishments include an award at the 2025 YoungArts National Arts competition, second prize at the 2023 Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford, CT and finalist selection at the 2023 Boston Pops and Fidelity Investments Young Artists Competition. He is currently a high school junior at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, Mass.
