The meditative focus and rare stillness of Armenian-American pianist Sergei Babayan’s
keyboard artistry prompted the Hamburger Abendblatt to liken him to “one of those Japanese
calligraphers who contemplate the white page before them in silence until, at the exact right
moment, their brush makes its instinctive, perfect sweep across the paper”. Babayan himself
has observed that making music should be open to surprises and spontaneous insights, allow-
ing unexpected emotions to emerge and subtle shadings to evolve naturally.
Sergei Babayan has collaborated with such conductors as Sir Antonio Pappano, David
Robertson, Neeme Järvi, Rafael Payare, Thomas Dausgaard, Tugan Sokhiev, and Dima Slobode-
niouk. Over the years, Babayan has performed with Valery Gergiev numerous times to great
critical acclaim, including appearances at the Barbican Centre with the London Symphony
Orchestra, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elyseés in Paris, the Salzburg Festival, and at the Rot-
terdam Philharmonic-Gergiev Festival, where Babayan was artist-in-residence.
In recent seasons, Mr. Babayan’s schedule included concert performances with the
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic,
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Sympho-
ny,Vancouver Symphony, and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, among others. Sergei Babayan
regularly performs at many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the Amsterdam
Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Munich’s
Prinzregententheater, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Maison de la Radio in Paris, Ham-
burg’s Elbphilharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the Zurich Tonhalle. He has appeared at ma-
jor festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, Gstaad Menuhin
Festival, and Verbier Festival. At Konzerthaus Dortmund, Sergei Babayan was a Curating Artist.
Mr. Babayan performs with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the London Symphony
Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra,
Orchestre National de Lille, Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orches-
tra.
Sergei Babayan is a Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist; his latest release ‘Rach-
maninoff’ (DG 2020) was hailed by the international press as a groundbreaking recording
and received numerous awards including BBC Recording of the Month and CHOC Classica
(‘This musical journey, born out of a limitless imagination and thought in minute detail, is one
big masterpiece.’) His previous DG release of his own transcriptions for two pianos of works
by Sergei Prokofiev, with Martha Argerich as his partner (‘Prokofiev for Two’; DG 2018), was
praised by reviewers as ‘the CD one has waited for’ (Le Devoir), an ‘electrifying duo that
leaves the listener in consternation’ (Pianiste). Mr. Babayan’s performances have been broad-
cast by Radio France, BBC-TV and BBC Radio 3, NHK Satellite Television and Medici TV.
Born in Armenia into a musical family, Babayan began his studies there with Georgy
Saradjev and continued at the Moscow Conservatory with Mikhail Pletnev,Vera Gornostayeva
and Lev Naumov. Following his first trip outside of the USSR in 1989, he won consecutive
first prizes in several major international competitions including the Cleveland International
Piano Competition, the Hamamatsu Piano Competition, and the Scottish International Piano
Competition. An American citizen, he lives in New York City