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Serouj Kradjian (born in 1973) is a Canadian Grammy-nominated and Juno-winning pianist and composer.
Early life and education
Born in 1973, at fourteen earned a scholarship to study in Vienna, and was gaining accolades by the age of seven. He later studied with Marietta Orlov at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
's Faculty of Music, where he earned his
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in Piano Performance in 1994. He studied with
Einar Steen-Nökleberg at the
Hochschule für Musik und Theater in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, Germany, receiving a Solo Performance degree in 2001.
Performances
Kradjian has appeared with the
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
Symphonies, Göttingen Symphony,
Russian National Orchestra
The Russian National Orchestra (russian: Российский национальный оркестр) was founded in Moscow in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. It was the first Russian orchestra to perform at the Apostolic Palace, ...
, the
Armenian Philharmonic and the
Thailand Philharmonic under the baton of conductors such as
Bramwell Tovey
Bramwell Tovey (11 July 1953 – 12 July 2022) was a British conductor and composer.
Life and career
Tovey was educated at Ilford County High School, the Royal Academy of Music and the University of London. His formal music education was as ...
,
Peter Oundjian
Peter Oundjian (born 21 December 1955) is a Canadian-American violinist and conductor.
Early life
Born in Toronto, Ontario, as the youngest of five children from an Armenian father and English mother, Oundjian also claims Scottish ancestry throu ...
,
Stéphane Denève,
Eduard Topchjan, Gudni Emilsson and
Raffi Armenian
Raffi Armenian, (born June 4, 1942) is a Canadian conductor, pianist, composer, and teacher. He directed the Kitchener–Waterloo Symphony orchestra for many years. Since 1999 he has been the director of Orchestral Studies at the University of T ...
.
Solo recitals, chamber music concerts and premieres of his compositions have taken Mr. Kradjian from all major Canadian cities, via the U.S – New York (
Carnegie Hall), Boston (
Jordan Hall
Jordan Hall is a 1,051-seat concert hall in Boston, Massachusetts, the principal performance space of the New England Conservatory. It is one block from Boston's Symphony Hall. It is the only conservatory building in the United States to be de ...
), San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles – to European concert halls in London (
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...
), Paris (Salle Cortot), Munich, Salzburg, Trondheim, Lausanne, Geneva, Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao, to the Far East in China and Japan and to Latin America (Mexico & Brazil). He has been invited to perform at festivals such as the Bergen Festival,
Savannah Music Festival
The Savannah Music Festival (SMF) is dedicated to presenting a world-class celebration of the musical arts by creating timeless and adventurous productions that stimulate arts education, foster economic growth, and unite artists and audiences in Sa ...
, Colmar Festival,
Luminato Festival
Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artists fr ...
,
Ottawa Chamberfest,
Rockport Music
Rockport Music is a presenting organization in Rockport, Massachusetts, bringing music and other artistic programming in variety of genres to audiences in the greater Boston area and the Massachusetts North Shore. Founded in 1981 as the Rockpo ...
, and the Festival Del Sole- Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy. As a collaborative artist, Kradjian has appeared in concert with violinists
Ara Malikian (a fellow Lebanese-Armenian),
Cho-Liang Lin
Cho-Liang Lin (Lin Cho-liang, , born January 29, 1960), born in Hsinchu, Taiwan, is an American violinist who is renowned for his appearances as a soloist with major orchestras. Musical America named him its "Instrumentalist of the Year" in 20 ...
,
Lara St. John,
Chee-Yun and
Jonathan Crow, soprano
Dawn Upshaw
Dawn Upshaw (born July 17, 1960) is an American soprano. She is the recipient of several Grammy Awards and has released a number of Edison Award-winning discs; she performs both opera and art song, and her repertoire spans Baroque to contempor ...
, baritone
Russell Braun, tenor
Michael Schade
Michael Schade (born 23 January 1965) is a Canadian operatic tenor, who was born in Geneva and raised in Germany and Canada. He and his wife Dee McKee, and their youngest child live in Vienna, Austria; the rest of the family lives in Canada.
...
, violist
Kim Kashkashian
Kim Kashkashian (born August 31, 1952) is an American violist. She is recognized as one of the world's top violists. She has spent her career in the US and Europe and collaborated with many major contemporary composers. In 2013 she won a Grammy ...
, percussionist
Jamey Haddad
Jamey George Haddad (born July 2, 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American percussionist who works primarily in the fields of jazz and world music and specializes in hand drums.
Biography
Haddad is of Lebanese ancestry. From the age of four, he b ...
, the
Pacifica,
New Orford, Cecilia String Quartets and
Camerata Pacifica.
His explorations of tango and flamenco music have led to the critically acclaimed recording project “Tango Notturno” and the North American concert tour of “Reimagining Flamenco” with acclaimed flamenco guitarist
Grisha Goryachev. His latest touring project is
“Convivencia” a unique program for voice and chamber music, celebrating religious and ethnic diversity and harmony. Hell’s Fury a theatre piece based on the “Hollywood Songbook” by German composer
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...
, a collaboration between Kradjian and baritone Russell Braun had its US premiere at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in 2019.
Composer
Over a hundred works, composed or arranged by Kradjian have been performed by the Toronto and Vancouver Symphonies, I Musici de Montreal, Fresno Philharmonic, the Armenian Philharmonic and the
Elmer Iseler Singers
The Elmer Iseler Singers is a professional chamber choir based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The twenty-voice choir, conducted by Artistic Director ''Lydia Adams'', founded by Dr. Elmer Iseler in 1979, is one of Canada’s leading choral ensemb ...
and Elektra Women's Chorus. He was also founder and music director of Camerata Creativa in Madrid, Spain, a chamber orchestra dedicated to the performance of contemporary works.
His concerts have been broadcast by the
CBC, Radio de la Suisse Romande, Radio and TV España, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, the Süddeutsche Rundfunk and
NHK Japan.
Kradjian is the artistic director and pianist of Canada’s acclaimed Juno winning Amici Chamber Ensemble, responsible for innovative programming, promotion, and performance of 50+ concerts, including annual educational outreach program with the students of Claude Watson School for the Performing Arts at Earl Haig Secondary School in Toronto, Canada.
Educator
Fluent in six languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Armenian & Arabic), he has taught diverse musical subjects, including piano performance, chamber music, arrangement, composition, world music interpretation, at prestigious music schools such as the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (Germany), Centro Superior Escuela Musica Creativa and Katarina Gurska School of Music & Foundation (both in Madrid, Spain). He is also active as a chamber music and vocal music / diction coach at Vancouver International Song Academy and Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music, where he also programs and conducts concerts of the Academy Chamber Orchestra, formed by the exceptionally gifted string players of The Glenn Gould School and Taylor Academy, also serving as member of the Jury at their annual Chamber Music Competition.
Discography
Kradjian's discography includes traversals of Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etudes and Piano Concerti on the Warner Music Spain label. "Miniatures", an anthology of music written by Armenian composers, and Robert Schumann's three Sonatas for Violin and Piano (with Ara Malikian) are both Hänssler Classic releases. A recording featuring songs by Pauline Viardot-Garcia, was released in 2005, bringing him a 2006 Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year. He has explored and performed tango music which led to the disc "Tango Notturno" on CBC Records. His award-winning orchestral arrangements of folk songs by
Gomidas – Armenia's national composer – were released as "Gomidas Songs" in 2008 on the Nonesuch label and nominated for a Grammy award.
With the Amici Chamber Ensemble he has released ''Armenian Chamber Music'' in 2010, which was nominated for a Juno for Best Classical Album, & Levant, Winner of the Juno for Best Classical Album 2013. ''Troubadour & the Nightingale'', an album of his original composition "Trobairitz Ysabella" and his arrangements of songs by
Maurice Ravel and
Sayat Nova
Sayat-Nova (Armenian: Սայեաթ-Նովայ ( сlassical), Սայաթ-Նովա ( reformed); ka, საიათნოვა; ; ; born Harutyun Sayatyan; 14 June 1712 – 22 September 1795) was an Armenian poet, musician and '' ashugh'', w ...
, recorded on MCO Records by the
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra
The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (MCO) is a chamber orchestra based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It offers an annual subscription series at Westminster United Church, which regularly features Canada's leading soloists, such as James Ehnes and Meash ...
was nominated for Juno for Best Classical Album 2014. ''Mother of Light'', a new album of medieval sacred music, entirely arranged by Kradjian was nominated for a 2018 Juno for Best Classical Recording.
List of recordings
* ''Inspired By Canada / Notre Pays'' (2017, Marquis Classics), with
Mireille Asselin & Amici Chamber Ensemble
* ''Mother of Light'' (2016, Delos Music)
* ''Levant'' (2012, ATMA Classique)
* ''Troubadour & the Nightingale'' (2012, MCO Records)
* ''Armenian Chamber Music'' (2010, ATMA Classique)
* ''Gomidas Songs'' (2008,
Nonesuch __NOTOC__
Nonesuch may refer to:
Plants
* ''Lychnis chalcedonica'', a wildflower
* ''Medicago lupulina'', a wildflower
Places and structures
*Nonesuch, Kentucky
*Nonesuch Island, Bermuda
*Nonesuch Mine, Michigan
*Nonesuch Palace, mis-spelling of ...
) with Chamber Players of the Armenian Philharmonic conducted by
Eduard Topchjan.
* ''Tango Notturno'' (2007, CBC Records)
* ''Twelve Transcendental Etudes: Franz Liszt'' (2005, Warner Music Spain)
* ''
Pauline Viardot
Pauline Viardot (; 18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue and composer of Spanish descent.
Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms. When it is not simply "Pauli ...
: Lieder Chansons Canzoni Mazurkas'' (Analekta, 2004)
* ''Piano Concerto no 1 : Franz Liszt (with Goettinger Symphonie Orchester)'' 2001
* ''Robert Schumann: Three Sonatas for Violin & Piano'' (Hanssler Klassik, 1998)
* ''Miniatures: Works by Armenian composers for violin & piano (''Malkrafon, 1996)
Awards
In addition to two
Juno Awards and a
Grammy nomination, Kradjian has won the Chalmers Grant of the
Ontario Arts Council
The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is a publicly-funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians. Based in Toronto, OAC was founded in 1963 by O ...
and grants from the
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the fede ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kradjian, Serouj
Armenian classical pianists
Armenian pianists
Canadian people of Armenian descent
Canadian composers
Canadian male composers
20th-century Canadian pianists
1973 births
Living people
American Oriental Orthodox Christians
Canadian Oriental Orthodox Christians
University of Toronto alumni
Canadian classical pianists
Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year – Vocal or Choral Performance winners
Canadian male pianists
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century Canadian male musicians
Musicians from Beirut
Lebanese people of Armenian descent
Lebanese pianists
21st-century Canadian pianists