Winner of the Silver Medal at the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Suren Bagratuni has gone to a distinguished international career as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Mr. Bagratuni began his musical education there at the age of six. After winning several national and international competitions he continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory and later in the United States, at the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers include such legendary names as Daniel Shafran, Natalia Shakhovskaya and Laurence Lesser.
Suren Bagratuni began performing at age ten, and by age thirteen appeared as a concerto soloist. He has performed solo recitals and, as a soloist, with all the major orchestras in the former Soviet Union, throughout Europe, North and South America, Asia and South Africa.
Chamber music appearances have included guest invitations with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Newport Music Festival, the “Russian Winter” festival in Moscow, the El Paso Pro Musica International festival, international festivals in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Spain, Armenia, Canada, Australia, Columbia, Mexico, Brazil, Korea, China and Taiwan.
Suren Bagratuni won critical acclaim for his CD releases on the Marco Polo, Ongaku and BGR labels, and also appears on Russian Disc, Centaur, Cambria and CMH labels. He has recorded for “Melodiya”, and has been featured on ARD (Germany), CBC Radio Canada, WNYC in New York, NPR, Radio France and NHK TV Japan.
In addition to his performing activities, Mr. Bagratuni is professor of cello at Michigan State University, founding member of the NOBILIS trio and artistic director of the “Cello Plus…” International music festival.