Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
June 27, 2004 Sunday

Limelight shines on pianist, Utah

by Rebecca C. Howard Deseret Morning News

It was the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition that
initially brought Karen Hakobyan to Salt Lake City. And it was the
University of Utah that kept him here.

But now, it’s the 18-year-old college student who is bringing
recognition to the Beehive State.

Recent winner of the 2004 ASCAP (American Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers) Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer
Competition, and invited artist in the 2005 Lille International Piano
Festival, Hakobyan has distinguished himself as both a composer and a
performer in the international music world.

But for now, he is with us.

The Armenian-born musician was 5 when his father first bought a
piano. “My sister is five years older than me,” he recalled, “and she
started to play the piano. Every time she would finish playing, I
would go up to the piano and perform the same thing that she had been
practicing without even having any knowledge of music. So my parents
decided I should start taking lessons.”

He was only 6 when his parents enrolled him in the Tchaikovsky
Special Music School in Yerevan, Armenia, and 13 when he wrote his
first symphony for a full-size orchestra.

“After I finished this symphony, I was commissioned to write my
second symphony by a very big festival. It’s called the Young
Euro-Classic International Festival up in Berlin, and they asked me
to compose the second symphony, which was performed in 2001. So I
finished it at the age of 15.”

It was this second symphony that eventually won the ASCAP award, as
well as the Robertson Scholarship in Composition at the University of
Utah.

While all of this was going on, Hakobyan was also busy performing
with different orchestras and entering competitions. “In fact, one of
the biggest accomplishments around then was the Armenian Legacy
Pianists International Piano Competition,” he said.

It was right after that competition that he heard about the Gina
Bachauer competition and decided to enter.

As a 16-year-old, he entered the Young Artists division in 2001.
While he was here, he gave a solo recital at the University of Utah,
where he was “discovered” by some of the faculty. After being offered
a scholarship, he decided to enroll that fall while still only 16.

Now a junior with a double major in piano performance and music
composition, Hakobyan says that the U. has been a great place for
him. “I’ve had very great positive experience here, and I’ve enjoyed
my teachers very much,” he said, acknowledging both his piano
instructor, Susan Duehlmeier, and the several composition faculty
members with whom he has studied.

In fact, it was while giving a solo recital at the U. that he was
again discovered, this time by maestro Jean-Claude Casadesus, who
invited him to be one of about 10 pianists in the 2005 Lille piano
festival. “We each get to perform one concerto with the orchestra and
also one solo recital,” he said. “It’s just a very exciting event,
and it’s something I’m very much looking forward to.”

Since entering the U., Hakobyan has taken first prize in a number of
competitions — including the Pinault International
Audiotape/Videotape Piano Competition, which resulted in a debut
recital at Carnegie Hall. “(It) was very well received by the press
and also the musicians there,” Hakobyan said of the performance.

He added that the ASCAP award is also a significant achievement
because it’s one of the biggest competitions in the United States for
composition. He said they had a record number of people enter this
year — about 500– with his age division reaching up to 32 years
old.

“I would say it’s quite a nice achievement and it’s nice to be
recognized by the ASCAP competition,” he said. One of the most
valuable outcomes of the competition, he added, is the recognition
and potential for future commissions.

“Many musicians, many conductors and chamber musicians contact you
later on for performances for new pieces or commissioning new
pieces,” he said, “so it’s just a very nice opportunity.”

Already, he said, he has been contacted by several people interested
in seeing his work.

In the meantime, he’s hoping to complete a piano concerto that he’s
writing for himself and a work for string orchestra. E-mail:
rcline@desnews.com