“Arutyunian impressed with his crystalline articulation and expressive warmth.”
– The Australian
Clarinetist Narek Arutyunian is an artist who “reaches passionate depths with seemingly effortless technical prowess and beguiling sensitivity” (The Washington Post).
As First Prize Winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Arutyunian was presented in debut recitals in New York at Merkin Concert Hall and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center to rave reviews. In addition to solo recitals, he is a frequent soloist with orchestras around the world, performing with The Boston Pops, Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall, Prague Radio Symphony, the Kaliningrad Philharmonic, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, among others. Mr. Arutyunian also consistently receives acclaim for his educational outreach programs in New York City public schools and around the country.
Born in Armenia, Narek Arutyunian’s family moved to Moscow when he was three. As a teenager, he won First Prizes in the International Young Musicians Competition in Prague and the Musical Youth of the Planet Competition in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory as a student of Evgeny Petrov, received a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Charles Neidich, and then earned a Master’s Degree with Mr. Neidich at the Manhattan School of Music on a Leon Russianoff Memorial Scholarship.
American pianist Steven Beck is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where
his teachers were Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Bruce Brubaker. He made
his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, and has toured Japan as
soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Other orchestras with which
he has appeared include the New Juilliard Ensemble (under David Robertson), Sequitur, the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and the Virginia Symphony.
Mr. Beck has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theater, and Steinway Hall, as well as on the New York Philharmonic Ensembles Series and WNYC. Summer appearances have been at the Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Greenwich Music Festival, the Woodstock Mozart Festival, and the Wellesley Composers’ Conference. He is an Artist Presenter and regular performer at Bargemusic (where he recently performed all of the Beethoven piano sonatas), performs frequently as a musician with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has performed with the New York City Ballet.
Composers Mr. Beck has worked with include Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, George Perle, and Charles Wuorinen, and he has appeared with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Manhattan String Quartet, the Pacifica String Quartet, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, the East Coast Composers’ Ensemble, the Fountain Ensemble, Friends and Enemies of New Music, Lost Dog, and Antisocial Music. He is a member of the new music ensemble Future In Reverse (FIRE) as well as the notorious Knights of the Many-Sided Table. His recordings are on the Albany, Bridge, Monument, Mulatta, and Annemarie Classics labels.