Şahan Arzruni

Şahan Arzruni (; born 8 June 1943) is a New York–based Armenian-American classical pianist, ethnomusicologist, lecturer, composer, writer and producer.

Early life and education

Arzruni (also transliterated as Artsruni), whose family name belongs to an ancient Armenian nobility, was born in Istanbul, Turkey. His father is Stepan Jirayr Arzruni, and mother Maryam Kalpak. Composer Sirvart Kalpakyan Karamanuk is his maternal aunt who encouraged Arzruni to play the piano at the age of four; he appeared publicly at the age of five. He received his general education at Esayan and Getronagan Armenian Lyceums, and graduated from the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory (now Istanbul University State Conservatory), where he studied piano with Ferdi Statzer and harmony with Raşit Abed.

He moved to New York City in 1964 to study further at the Juilliard School of Music on a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. There his principal teachers were Sascha Gorodnitzki in piano, Felix Galimir in chamber music, Joseph Bloch in piano literature, and Hall Overton in composition. Arzruni graduated from Juilliard, earning his Bachelor of Science degree in 1967 and a Master of Science degree in 1968. Arzruni has also pursued doctoral studies at New York University.

Career

Motivated by ethnic awareness in the United States, Arzruni continuously investigates the musical roots of his Armenian heritage. He researches traditional Armenian music and has recorded a three-disc anthology of Armenian piano music, as well as co-produced an eight-disc set of instrumental and vocal Armenian music. He also delivered papers and organized symposia for such institutions as Harvard University, Columbia University and University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Şahan Arzruni is the author of books and a contributor of articles for academic journals; he has also written for various editions of The New Grove Dictionary and the Dictionary of the Middle Ages.

A Steinway artist, he was invited to perform on an 1869 Steinway piano at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the inaugural of the centennial celebrations of the Museum’s collection of historic instruments. In 2001, Mr. Arzruni delivered a lecture on Armenian liturgical chants at the invitation of the U.S. Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C.

Şahan Arzruni has performed with Victor Borge, playing the role of straight man in Borge's concerts starting with the late 1960s, and appeared with Borge at the 1980 Royal Variety Show Command Performance where the pair performed Borge's classic comedic arrangement for duet piano of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody.

Arzruni appeared in television and radio broadcasts, including ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', ''The Mike Douglas Show'' and a number of PBS specials and has recorded for European radio networks, including the BBC. Arzruni has given command performances at the White House, as well as the British, Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic courts. In 2008, he was awarded "Honorary Professorship" from Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory in Armenia. In 2015, Şahan Arzruni was awarded the Presidential Movses Khorenatsi medal, the Republic of Armenia's highest cultural award.

In 2017, 2019, and again in 2022 and 2024, Arzruni visited various provinces of Armenia, as well as the Republic of Artsakh, coaching young musicians and performing in recitals. While on the road, he stopped over in ancient, remote monasteries, exploring and photographing the sites. This documentation has served as the basis of a series of articles in Paros monthly, published in Istanbul.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Şahan Arzruni curated a series of mini-concerts online, "Together for Armenia," to help Armenia financially.

Arzruni records for New World Records