NAREK HAKHNAZARYAN AT THE COLONIAL
By Clarence Fanto

The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)
October 16, 2008 Thursday

PITTSFIELD — The time-honored joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall
— "practice, practice, practice!" — could use some updating in our
multimedia era.

For rising young Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, entering and
winning every competition in sight, acquiring a Web presence for audio
and video samples, and being signed by Young Concert Artists (YCA),
a management group that has launched many a stellar career, have been
equally important. His launching pad is well-equipped for liftoff,
subject to the vagaries of audience reaction and the imponderables that
spell the difference between fame, obscurity, or something in between.

Tonight at the Colonial Theatre, Hakhnazaryan, 19, will offer Berkshire
audiences a first hearing of his upcoming recitals later this month
at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and at the Kennedy Center.

The performance at 7 is sponsored by Joseph and Mary Jane
Handler. Piano accompanist is Noreen Polera, and the program includes
music by Beethoven, Schumann, Paganini and Shostakovich, as well as
brief works by contemporary Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin and
Armenian composer Adam Khudoyan (1921-2000).

Soccer ambitions

During a telephone interview from the YCA offices in Manhattan,
Hakhnazaryan confessed that even though his parents were musicians,
"I didn’t want to play any instrument when I was small, I just
wanted to play soccer like everyone else. But of course, my parents
wanted me to be a musician." One day, without warning, his mother,
a pianist, enrolled him in a cello class at the Yerevan Music School
in Armenia’s ancient city, the republic’s capital and now a bustling
metropolis. "My father, who had wanted me to be a violinist like him,
was very surprised but pleased," he recalled.

"Everybody says I caught on very quickly, and that my hands were
very good for the cello." By the time he was 11, Hakhnazaryan had
won the Armenian Republic competition. After a summer of classes in
Suzdal, near Moscow, he was invited to study at the Moscow Tchaikovsky
Conservatory. He moved to the Russian capital with his mother, while
his father stayed behind in Yerevan to continue playing in the Komitas
Quartet, founded in 1924.

The young cellist is now a third-year student at the Moscow State
Conservatory; already, he has performed in the U.S., France, Germany,
Austria, Greece, England and Canada.

He launched his current tour at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe,
Pa., where he found that listeners "didn’t show their emotions at
first, but they became warmer toward the end of the concert. Some
audiences are very warm from the beginning; the differences are very
interesting." He covets younger audiences because connecting with
them is more challenging. "They like different music," Hakhnazaryan
acknowledged, "but many people my age enjoy my concerts and come up
to me afterwards."

Although the prospect of performing recitals at Carnegie Hall or
the Kennedy Center is nerve-wracking, "that’s nothing compared to
competitions. You don’t know whether you are playing well in front of
the judges." But nerves did not prevent him from scoring First Prize
in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia
and Fifth Prize at the 2007 Tchaikovsky International Competition in
Moscow, among others.

Role models

Cellists who have served as role models include Gregor Piatigorsky
and Steven Isserlis, and favored composers range from Schumann and
Shostakovich to Prokofiev and Bach. "It depends on my mood," he said,
"but of course for me there is one composer always in my heart —
Beethoven."

In his down time, he enjoys Armenian folk music ("I can listen to it
forever") and jazz, especially the late pianist Oscar Peterson. "I
like all musicians who are talented, it doesn’t matter which style
it is," Hakhnazaryan stressed, listing Led Zeppelin and The Prodigy
among his favorite rock performers.

Future uncertain

Apart from completing his conservatory studies in Moscow, his future
plans are up in the air, except for a desire to live in the U.S.,
where he finds New York City especially fascinating.

"I’m not even thinking about it," he insisted. "I can see from my
own experience that if I think about the future a lot, it’s not
happening. I’m just trying to do my best."

After a foundation-sponsored performance in San Francisco in
February 2006, Hakhnazaryan earned high praise from a reviewer for
the San Francisco Classical Voice Web site — "he gave an eloquent and
fearless performance in some ways, gloriously old-fashioned. A young
Piatigorsky would have been proud of such rhythms, such confident
sound. His intonation was superb." Now he’s under the aegis of Young
Concert Artists, which helped launch the careers of Emanuel Ax,
Dawn Upshaw, Richard Goode and other classical luminaries and has a
"legendary track record of spotting the best new talent in classical
music," according to The New York Times.

Hakhnazaryan hopes this roll of the dice comes up sevens.

In concert What: Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, with pianist Noreen
Polera. Music by Beethoven, Schumann, Paganini, Shostakovich,Shchedrin,
Khudoyan

Who: Young Concert Artists

When: Tonight 7

Where: The Colonial Theatre, 111 South St., Pittsfield.

Tickets: $12 (adults), $6 (students)

How: (413) 997-4444; ; at the box office