Mikhail Simonyan
Mikhail Simonyan, violin
BIOGRAPHY
Still in his early twenties, Mikhail Simonyan is already recognized as one of the most celebrated talents of his generation. The New York Times has praised his, "breadth, lyricism and fleet technique," and reported that "Mr. Simonyan play[s] as if every note counted." The Miami Herald has declared, "Mikhail Simonyan . . . played with the poise, perfection and inner burning fire of a master like David Oistrakh in his prime on a good night."
Mr. Simonyan, who hails from Novosibirsk (the same city that Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov call home), began to study the violin at the age of five. As part of the first generation of artists to forge careers in an era with substantially decreased government support, he has blazed a trail for young musicians in Russia. In 1999, at 13, Mr. Simonyan made his acclaimed New York debut at Lincoln Center with the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra (ARYO) and his debut in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre in ARYO's joint concert with the Mariinsky Youth Orchestra, performing the Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1 (which he had just learned for the occasion).
Recently, Mr. Simonyan has launched a private initiative called Beethoven Not Bullets to assist the newly founded Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul. Mr. Simonyan is working to raise funds to sponsor students at the Institute, which is the war-torn country’s only music school. ANIM’s mission is to educate a new generation of musicians, regardless of ethnicity or gender, revitalizing music in Afghanistan and restoring it as a strong cultural voice. The college is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan and Monash University, Australia. Dr Ahmad Sarmast, a musician and native of Afghanistan educated at Monash University, Australia and Moscow State Conservatory has led this initiative since 2007. Mr. Simonyan’s immediate goal is to sponsor 50 of the school’s students for one year, at a cost of $360 per student. Future plans include a trip to Kabul to visit the school to meet, coach, and perform for students.
In June 2010, Mr. Simonyan made his debut with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, performing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Bramwell Tovey conducting. In addition, in spring 2010, he was the featured soloist in two private concerts at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, with HRH The Prince of Wales Prince Charles in attendance. In October 2009, Mr. Simonyan opened the concert season of the New World Symphony, performing the Glazunov Violin Concerto under Michael Tilson Thomas.
Other recent and upcoming highlights include Mr. Simonyan’s recital debuts in Paris at the Musée du Louvre, in New York at Lincoln Center, at the Dresden Musikfest, and during the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Musikfestival in Germany; debuts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra with Sir Neville Marriner, the Dresden Philharmonic with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and the Tonkünstler Orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein; a tour with the National Philharmonic of Russia led by Vladimir Spivakov; and appearances with the Vancouver Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and West Australian Symphony.
Mr. Simonyan has performed with, among others, the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi. He has worked with conductors including Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, Constantine Orbelian, Vladimir Spivakov, Arnold Katz, Kristjan Järvi, Leon Botstein, and the late Yehudi Menuhin. Past performance highlights for Mr. Simonyan include a solo appearance with Leonard Slatkin at the Kennedy Center's 35th Anniversary Gala in 2001, after which he made his official debut with Maestro Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra in 2002. Later that same year, he performed at the Davos World Economic Summit. He has also performed as a soloist at the Horatio Alger Awards Dinner in Washington, DC.
In addition, Mr. Simonyan's much-anticipated debut recording of the Prokofiev Sonatas for Violin and Piano, recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, was released in January 2009. The Strad raved, "Simonyan's tonal and intonational purity, coupled with a ravishing range of expressive colours, illuminates this extraordinary work with laser beam accuracy." Mr. Simonyan has been featured as a rising star violinist in The Strad and Strings magazine.
Mr. Simonyan has earned first prize awards at the All-Russia Competition in Saint Petersburg, the Siberian Violin Competition, the National Prize Prizvanie in Moscow, and the Salon de Virtuosi in New York. He is a winner of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Award, and received the 2000 Virtuoso of the Year award in Saint Petersburg. In 2003, the National Academy of Achievement selected him for an award in the Performing Arts. In 2005, he received the highest level of recognition when President Putin received him at the Kremlin, in acknowledgment of his status as one of Russia's most promising young musicians. In 2008, he won the Young Artist Award from the Classical Recording Foundation. In the autumn of 2004, after studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Mr. Simonyan returned to Russia and was immediately in demand by the leading orchestras of his home country. After his debut with the Russian National Orchestra, the Moscow Times wrote, " he seems destined to be ranked on the same Superstar level as fellow Novosibirsk natives Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin."
Mr. Simonyan continues to work with Victor Danchenko in the United States and now lives in New York. He plays a Giuseppe Gagliano violin made in Napoli, Italy in 1769. Mr. Simonyan is managed worldwide by Tanja Dorn at IMG Artists.
In his spare time, Mr. Simonyan takes flying lessons, and is an avid skydiver.
For more information, please visit www.mikhailsimonyan.com
[Last updated June 23, 2010]
Mikhail Simonyan Biography by Christina Jensen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.christinajensenpr.com.
