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Posted on Sat, Sep. 26, 2009 10:15 PM
Pianist Nareh Arghamanyan opens Friends of Chamber Music's season
By MICHAEL PETTENGELL
Special to The Star
When the subject is music, most of us are `hopeless romantics.'
Made to order is the upcoming season from Friends of Chamber
Music. It's focusing on the work of Frederic Chopin, beginning Friday
with 20-year-old award-winning pianist Nareh Arghamanyan.
The best romantic composers blend strength and feeling seamlessly, and
Arghamanyan, an Armenian virtuoso who has been winning prestige and
competitions since age 8, is perfectly suited for such a task. Her
program includes Mendelssohn, Schumann, the evergreen Beethoven and a
Chopin Polonaise. The last is part of the series' 200th birth-year
celebration of that angst-ridden composer, who was Polish by
nationality, French by temperament.
`I think Nareh Arghamanyan is one of the most exciting new talents,'
said Cynthia Siebert, executive director of the Friends of Chamber
Music. `She is certainly the young and up-and-coming pianist out
there.'
The pianist and Chopin are revolutionaries of a sort. Chopin blended
emotion and power in his reworking of traditional genre pieces,
turning them inside out. His musical strength belied the
stereotypically frail picture of him. Arghamanyan may look small as
she approaches the keyboard, but she surprises with her authoritative
touch and her ever inventive artistic intuition.
Like most prodigies, Arghamanyan was introduced to the piano early on,
and it was love at first touch.
`I was 3 years old,' she said recently from California, where she was
beginning her U.S. tour, `and my mother showed me a toy piano and
said, `This is a toy ¦ you can play with this toy rather than go
outside and play.' I was really amazed at the sounds that it
produced. And soon afterward I started playing piano for like six
hours every day.'
Arghamanyan's ability to win piano competitions is nothing less than
astounding.
`I was really having fun with
I was all the time looking for another one or another opportunity to
compete or to play. It was the meaning of my life.'
Although one might think of concert performing as a kind of
nerve-racking experience, nothing is further from the truth for
Arghamanyan. In fact, it is there that she makes some of her most
meaningful discoveries.
`Every time I play a concert I discover something new and different
about the music,' she said. `When I am playing a concert it is so
obvious to me, I discover new elements, new dynamics and new
voices. And sometimes I wonder why I never noticed these things before
¦ in all the hours of practice. But it comes only during the
concerts, when I am so obviously hearing more.'
She pondered this ability and added, `I cannot say what it is, maybe
the intensity of the performance.'
It might surprise and delight concertgoers to learn that they are part
of an ongoing creative process: `In concert, you might say that I am
kind of experimenting' ' she laughed ' `because when I hear the
recordings of these concerts, they never sound the same.'
Siebert said Arghamanyan's style was her forte.
`She is exquisitely talented, with such great attention to nuances and
detail,' Siebert said, `not to mention the emotional quality she
brings to a piece. She will be hard to top this season.'
Said Arghamanyan, `For me the emotion and the meaning of the piece are
most important. You have to have the technical side, but that is only
a means to getting at the concept of the piece.'
For her, musical pieces take on an almost human aspect.
`Pieces have distinct personalities, and for pianists, we have to go
into all these different personalities and understand them ¦ so we
have to be very flexible and open to them.'
It is clear that the concert stage is what sustains Arghamanyan, and
she sees it as a means of communication.
`When I am playing I am trying to communicate with people with my
sound,' she said. `It is that connection that I want them to tak
omething from the concert. And that, for me, would be a successful
performance.'
THE SHOW
Friends of Chamber Music's Master Pianists Series kicks off with Nareh
Arghamanyan at 8 p.m. Friday at the Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th. For
tickets call 816-561-9999 or go to www.chambermusic.org.
http://www.kansascity.com/e ntertainment/story/1467317.html
Posted on Sat, Sep. 26, 2009 10:15 PM
Pianist Nareh Arghamanyan opens Friends of Chamber Music's season
By MICHAEL PETTENGELL
Special to The Star
When the subject is music, most of us are `hopeless romantics.'
Made to order is the upcoming season from Friends of Chamber
Music. It's focusing on the work of Frederic Chopin, beginning Friday
with 20-year-old award-winning pianist Nareh Arghamanyan.
The best romantic composers blend strength and feeling seamlessly, and
Arghamanyan, an Armenian virtuoso who has been winning prestige and
competitions since age 8, is perfectly suited for such a task. Her
program includes Mendelssohn, Schumann, the evergreen Beethoven and a
Chopin Polonaise. The last is part of the series' 200th birth-year
celebration of that angst-ridden composer, who was Polish by
nationality, French by temperament.
`I think Nareh Arghamanyan is one of the most exciting new talents,'
said Cynthia Siebert, executive director of the Friends of Chamber
Music. `She is certainly the young and up-and-coming pianist out
there.'
The pianist and Chopin are revolutionaries of a sort. Chopin blended
emotion and power in his reworking of traditional genre pieces,
turning them inside out. His musical strength belied the
stereotypically frail picture of him. Arghamanyan may look small as
she approaches the keyboard, but she surprises with her authoritative
touch and her ever inventive artistic intuition.
Like most prodigies, Arghamanyan was introduced to the piano early on,
and it was love at first touch.
`I was 3 years old,' she said recently from California, where she was
beginning her U.S. tour, `and my mother showed me a toy piano and
said, `This is a toy ¦ you can play with this toy rather than go
outside and play.' I was really amazed at the sounds that it
produced. And soon afterward I started playing piano for like six
hours every day.'
Arghamanyan's ability to win piano competitions is nothing less than
astounding.
`I was really having fun with
I was all the time looking for another one or another opportunity to
compete or to play. It was the meaning of my life.'
Although one might think of concert performing as a kind of
nerve-racking experience, nothing is further from the truth for
Arghamanyan. In fact, it is there that she makes some of her most
meaningful discoveries.
`Every time I play a concert I discover something new and different
about the music,' she said. `When I am playing a concert it is so
obvious to me, I discover new elements, new dynamics and new
voices. And sometimes I wonder why I never noticed these things before
¦ in all the hours of practice. But it comes only during the
concerts, when I am so obviously hearing more.'
She pondered this ability and added, `I cannot say what it is, maybe
the intensity of the performance.'
It might surprise and delight concertgoers to learn that they are part
of an ongoing creative process: `In concert, you might say that I am
kind of experimenting' ' she laughed ' `because when I hear the
recordings of these concerts, they never sound the same.'
Siebert said Arghamanyan's style was her forte.
`She is exquisitely talented, with such great attention to nuances and
detail,' Siebert said, `not to mention the emotional quality she
brings to a piece. She will be hard to top this season.'
Said Arghamanyan, `For me the emotion and the meaning of the piece are
most important. You have to have the technical side, but that is only
a means to getting at the concept of the piece.'
For her, musical pieces take on an almost human aspect.
`Pieces have distinct personalities, and for pianists, we have to go
into all these different personalities and understand them ¦ so we
have to be very flexible and open to them.'
It is clear that the concert stage is what sustains Arghamanyan, and
she sees it as a means of communication.
`When I am playing I am trying to communicate with people with my
sound,' she said. `It is that connection that I want them to tak
omething from the concert. And that, for me, would be a successful
performance.'
THE SHOW
Friends of Chamber Music's Master Pianists Series kicks off with Nareh
Arghamanyan at 8 p.m. Friday at the Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th. For
tickets call 816-561-9999 or go to www.chambermusic.org.
http://www.kansascity.com/e ntertainment/story/1467317.html