Sergei Babayan has long been venerated as a “pianist’s pianist” whose interpretations combine “quiet beauty and emotional fire” (The Times of London). Celebrated for his solo recitals, chamber concerts, and concerto collaborations with orchestras around the globe, the Armenian American pianist is also one of today’s preeminent pedagogues and an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist with a growing and distinguished discography. Bachtrack calls him “one of the greatest pianists of our time.” “This is piano playing of the very highest echelon,” agrees MusicWeb International. As Canada’s Le Devoir concludes, “Babayan is a genius. Period.”

 

Over the coming season, Babayan performs Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto with Naples’s Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo and the same composer’s Third with orchestras including Belgium’s Antwerp Symphony, led by its Chief Conductor, Elim Chan; Maryland’s National Philharmonic at Strathmore; and France’s Orchestre symphonique de l’Opéra de Toulon and Orchestre symphonique de Tours. Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto is similarly prominent in Babayan’s 2024-25 programming, taking him to Poland for performances with the Baltic Philharmonic, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic, and NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, with which he reprises the work in Dresden.

 

Other upcoming orchestral collaborations include Ravel concertos with Italy’s Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, to celebrate the French composer’s 150th anniversary; Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” with Lithuania’s Kremerata Baltica, both at the ensemble’s Vilnius home and on a tour of Italy; and a concerto for two pianos at Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, where Babayan will be joined by his former student and frequent piano partner Daniil Trifonov with the Verbier Festival Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach.

 

 

*The program is subject to change