Narek Hakhnazaryan

Since winning the First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 22, Narek Hakhnazaryan has performed with most major orchestras and in recitals across the globe at the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues. He has been described as “Dazzlingly Brilliant” (The Strad) and “Nothing short of magnificent” (San Francisco Chronicle), and of his LAPO debut, the Los Angeles Times said “His command of the instrument is extraordinary”.

Narek Hakhnazaryan is awarded the title of “Honored Artist of Armenia” and an honorable “Movses Khorenatsi” medal for “Outstanding Achievements in The Field of Culture” by the president of Armenia.

Hakhnazaryan has been enjoying truly global career playing with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio, Berlin Konzerthaus, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Finnish Radio, Helsinki Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK Symphony orchestras, and with conductors such as Gergiev, Jurowski, Koopman, Alsop, Lintu, Petrenko, Sokhiev, Robertson, Honeck, Noseda, Pletnev, Fisher, Netopil, Fisher, Spivakov, Guerrero and others. He has toured Spain with the WDR Symphony/Saraste, the US with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Järvi and Japan with the Czech Philharmonic/Bělohlávek.

A former BBC New Generation Artist, he has performed with all the BBC orchestras and made a sensational debut at the BBC Proms. In 2017, the Wiener Konzerthaus invited Hakhnazaryan to be a “Great Talent” and during the two seasons that followed he performed there regularly in recital, chamber music and with orchestras, most notably with the Wiener Symphoniker and Hrůša.

An eager chamber musician, Hakhnazaryan has performed at most major music festivals worldwide including Verbier, Aspen, Ravinia, Marlboro and in major halls across the world with various chamber partners including Daniil Trifonov, Denis Kozhukhin, Menahem Pressler, Arnold Steinhardt, Igor Lewit, Vadim Repin, Marc Boushkov and others. Recently Hakhnazaryan toured southeast Asia, performing the complete Bach cello solo suites in Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto.

Together with the violinist Esther Yoo and pianist Zhang Zuo Hakhnazaryan created the Z.E.N. Trio and has toured with it across the US, Europe, China and Australia. They released two albums exclusively on Deutsche Grammophon.

In North America Hakhnazaryan performs regularly with orchestras and in recitals, most recently in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto and in past seasons has performed at Carnegie Hall (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington DC) and Jordan Hall (Boston).

As a versatile musician and artist, Hakhnazaryan recently made his debut as a Conductor in Hamburg’s Leizhalle with Neue Philharmonie Hamburg Orchestra and conducted highly successful production of Gluck’s opera “Orpheus and Eurydice” in Armenia. In 2024 Hakhnazaryan founded and became Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of “Artsakh” Orchestra.

Narek Hakhnazaryan recorded soundtracks and was featured in several award-winning Motion Pictures, including Emir Kusturica’s “On The Milky Road”, “Yasha and Brezhnev” and in Animated Documentary “Aurora’s Sunrise”.

Mentored by the late Mstislav Rostropovich since the age of 14, Hakhnazaryan later received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Lawrence Lesser and Master’s Degree at Moscow State Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov. He began his cello lessons at the age of 6 at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan.

Hakhnazaryan’s prizes include First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia and First Prize in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan made his debut in Kennedy Centre (Washington, DC) and at Carnegie Hall (New York) at the age of 19.