NEW YORK — Pegasus: The Orchestra will make its debut at St. Vartan Cathedral on Friday, March 20, at 7 p.m., in a program titled “Armenian Voices, American Rhapsody.” The concert is presented by the Cultural Committee of St. Vartan Cathedral, under the auspices of Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan, Primate.
Under the direction of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Karén Hakobyan, the evening reflects a deeply personal artistic journey.
Born in Armenia and now based in New York, Hakobyan has shaped Pegasus around flexibility, clarity, and carefully curated programming.
For this debut, every work on the program is heard in a new version crafted by Hakobyan for Pegasus’s eighteen-member ensemble, curated specifically for this concert. The program opens with selections from Komitas’s Armenian Dances, performed by guest pianist Kiron Atom Tellian, alongside orchestral arrangements of Komitas by Hakobyan that illuminate Armenia’s most revered musical voice through a contemporary and intimate orchestral lens.
Cellist Sergey Antonov, Pegasus Artist in Residence, joins the orchestra for Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and Arutunian’s Impromptu, followed by Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise.
“It is always a pleasure to collaborate with Pegasus as Artist in Residence,” Antonov said. “I am especially thrilled to bring Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto to life in Karén Hakobyan’s new arrangement, which reveals fresh color and clarity in this beloved gem. Working with an ensemble so responsive and artistically committed makes the experience all the more meaningful,” said Antonov.
