BIOGRAPHIES

Violinist Haik Kazazyan was born in Yerevan in 1982. In 1989 he entered the Yerevan Sayat-Nova School of Music (class of Levon Zoryan). He completed his studies in Moscow under Eduard Grach at the Gnessin School of Music and the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, as well as under Ilya Rashkovsky at the Royal College of Music in London.

Prize-winner at the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition (Poznań, 2001; 3rd prize and special prize), the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 2002; 4th prize and three special prizes) and the International Long–Thibaud Competition (Paris, 2005; 3rd prize and Audience Award). In 2004 he received the Gold Medal and the Audience Award at the International Tibor Varga Violin Competition in Sion (Switzerland), while in 2007 he took the Gold Medal and the Audience Award at the International Yun Isang Violin Competition in Tongyeong (South Korea). In 2011 the musician won the George Enescu International Violin Competition in Bucharest, while in 2015 he received 3rd prize and the Bronze Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow – St Petersburg).

He has performed at such acclaimed venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Barbican Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, the Small and Rachmaninoff Halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre, the State Kremlin Palace and the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia. Took part in the Sion Festival and the Verbier Festival as well as the festivals Stars on Baikal, Crescendo, Arts Square and Musical Kremlin.

Haik Kazazyan has appeared with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic, the Irish National Orchestra, the State Academic Symphony of Russia , the Orchestre National de France and the Münchener Kammerorchester and Sinfonia Toronto.

Has collaborated with such musicians as Valery Gergiev, Teodor Currentzis, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Lazarev, Andrew Litton, Konstantin Orbelian, Alexander Polyanichko, Alan Buribayev, Jonathan Darlington, Pavel Kogan, Vladimir Ziva, Denis Matsuev, Eliso Virsaladze, Frederick Kempf, Alexei Lubimov, Alexander Kobrin, Ekaterina Mechetina, Vadym Kholodenko, Natalia Gutman, Alexander Kniazev, Alexander Rudin, Boris Andrianov and Alexander Buzlov.

He has recorded for the Chandos label an album of Opera Fantasies and the complete sonatas of Grieg. Since 2002 Haik Kazazyan is a permanent soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic, and has been on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory.

Sinfonia Toronto now in its 26th season, has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released four CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner, and performs in many Ontario cities. Its extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works. Under the baton of Nurhan Arman the orchestra’s performances present outstanding international guest artists and prominent Canadian musicians.

Maestro Nurhan Arman has conducted throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. Among the orchestras Maestro Arman has conducted are the Moscow Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Filarmonica Italiana, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic.

Sinfonia Toronto respectfully acknowledges that we work in the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation 

and the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee peoples