Sergei Babayan is an Armenian-American pianist, born on 1 January 1961 in Gyumri, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. He began his musical studies at the age of six with Luiza Markaryan, then studied with the pianist Georgy Saradjev, described in the article as a leading representative of the St Petersburg school and a former student of Vladimir Sofronitsky. He later studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Naumov, Vera Gornostayeva and Mikhail Pletnev.
In 1989 Babayan traveled to the United States and achieved major competition success. That year he won first prize in the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition. He later also won first prize in the Palm Beach International Piano Competition and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, as well as first prize in the Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow in 1992, and third prize at the Busoni International Piano Competition.
Babayan has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester, London Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, The National Orchestra of Belgium, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, and the Czech State Philharmonic. He has collaborated with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov, Tugan Sokhiev, Neeme Järvi, Rafael Payare, David Robertson, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and Nikolaj Znaider. He has also performed at major venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Konzerthaus Berlin, Munich's Prinzregententheater, the Salzburger Festspiele, Verbier Festival, and Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron.
His repertoire is notably broad, ranging from baroque and classical composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven to Romantic repertoire including Sergei Rachmaninoff and modern works by Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Vladimir Ryabov, and Arvo Pärt. He is particularly recognized for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2015 he performed two Prokofiev concertos at the BBC Proms with Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Babayan served as artist-in-residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1992 to 2024. Since 2013 he has also been a member of the faculty at The Juilliard School, and in 2023 he joined the faculty of Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts, where he serves as the Joel Estes Tate Endowed Chair in Piano and artist-in-residence. His students have included pianists such as Ching-Yun Hu, Stanislav Khristenko, and Daniil Trifonov.
He has recorded with Deutsche Grammophon, Connoisseur Society, Discover Records, and Pro Piano Records. In July 2018 he signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. In November 2019 he was Curating Artist at Konzerthaus Dortmund, presenting a festival with close musical colleagues and friends. His recording projects include Prokofiev for Two, a duo collaboration with Martha Argerich featuring Babayan's transcriptions for piano four hands from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and other works. Le Devoir described him as a "genius".
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