The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts Presents Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, 4/10

The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts concludes its 2015-2016 Recital Series with a special performance by the internationally award-winning cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan in Raitt Recital Hall at Pepperdine University at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 10.

Tickets for this recital are currently sold out. To be added to a waiting list, call the box office at (310) 506-4522. More information about Narek Hakhnazaryan is available at http://www.opus3artists.com/artists/narek-hakhnazaryan.

The program will include Schumann's Adagio and Allegro; Brahms' Sonata in F Major; Fauré's Elegie, Après un rêve, and Papillon; Tchaikovsky's Nocturne and Pezzo Capriccioso; Khachaturian's Lullaby; and Harutyunyan's Impromptu.

Narek Hakhnazaryan was awarded the Gold Medal at the 2011 XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition, the most prestigious prize given to a cellist. Praised as "extraordinary," "assured," and "old-school Romantic" by the Los Angeles Times, Hakhnazaryan has since established himself as one of the finest cellists of his generation, joining the prestigious BBC New Generation Artists scheme in 2014.

Mentored by Mstislav Rostropovich, Hakhnazaryan was the only cellist invited to travel on behalf of Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan debuted in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York at Carnegie's Zankel Hall, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Born 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia into a family of musicians, early studies were at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan and then at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with Lawrence Lesser.

Hakhnazaryan has played with some of the world's finest orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and Mariinsky orchestras, Filarmonica della Scala Milan and Orchestre National de Toulouse; and with conductors such as Gergiev, Valcuha, Koopman, van Zweden, Sokhiev, Neemi Järvi, Spivakov, Pletnev, Robertson, Belohlávek. In chamber and duo recitals he has performed in halls such as Zankel Hall (Carnegie Hall), Salle Pleyel Paris, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Oji Hall Tokyo, Jordan Hall (Boston), and at the Aspen, Ravinia, Tivoli, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, City of London and Verbier Festivals.

Recently, Hakhnazaryan appeared with the Detroit Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and made his debut with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, and New Zealand Symphony orchestras, and in recital at the Lucerne Festival and at the Dvorák Festival Prague with the Czech Philharmonic. Recent appearances in North and South America include performances with the Dallas Symphony and the Kansas City Symphony, and his New York concerto debut performing the Elgar Cello Concerto in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Last season, he returned to Carnegie's Zankel Hall; played Dvorak on a three-week US tour with the Estonian National Symphony; made his debut with the Toronto Symphony; and performed Lera Auerbach with the Sao Paulo Symphony.

The Recital Series at Pepperdine University has delighted audiences with new and emerging classical musicians since 1993. With intimate Sunday afternoon performances in Raitt Recital Hall, the series is nationally known for the high quality of its performances, the stunning location, the beautiful and acoustically superior venues, and the engagement and loyalty of its audience. Many of the featured artists have gone on to significant critical and professional acclaim, including cellist Johannes Moser, pianist Haochen Zhang, soprano Jessica Rivera, and cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

The Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University provides high-quality activities for over 50,000 people f­­rom 664 zip codes annually through performances, rehearsals, museum exhibitions, and master classes. Located on Pepperdine's breathtaking Malibu campus overlooking the Pacific, the center serves as a hub for the arts, uniquely linking professional guest artists with Pepperdine students as well as patrons from surrounding Southern California communities. Facilities include the 450-seat Smothers Theatre, the 118-seat Raitt Recital Hall, the "black box" Helen E. Lindhurst Theatre, and the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art.

THE DETAILS:

WHEN: Sunday, April 10, 2016 at 2 p.m.

WHERE: Raitt Recital Hall, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA

TICKETS: (310) 506-4522 or arts.pepperdine.edu

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