Artist-In-Residence: Sergei Babayan

Sunday, November 13, 2016 | 12:00 pm

Piano Master Class

The day following his Piano Recital Series performance, Sergei Babayan will lead a piano master class with Duke student musicians in Bone Hall on the lower level of the Mary Duke Biddle Music Building on Duke’s East Campus.

Sunday, November 13, 12PM
Bone Hall, 019 Mary Duke Biddle Music Building
Free & open to the public

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Sergei Babayan was one of the first Soviet pianists to emerge after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and his arrival in the West was a sensation. Twenty-five years after his dramatic arrival on the international scene, this Armenian-born virtuoso is still hailed as a musician’s musician. “Babayan is no mere pianist,” The Scotsman declared. “He is a master-musician for whom the piano is his voice, his orchestra.”  Babayan’s “unrivalled touch, perfectly harmonious phrasing, and breathtaking virtuosity” were lauded by Le Figaro. After a decade focused on teaching — he was the teacher of pianist Daniil Trifonov, appearing at Duke Performances on March 31 — he has been called back to the recital stage by popular demand.

Babayan arrives at Duke Performances with a powerhouse program. He begins with a dreamlike fantasia by his Russian contemporary Vladimir Ryabov, building to a selection of Chopin’s arch-romantic miniatures, including the famous and poignant Waltz in C-sharp Minor. The highlight of the program is Bach’s thirty Goldberg Variations, the pinnacle of baroque keyboard music.
Bach: Partita No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 826
I. Sinfonia
II. Allemande

Jerry Chia Rui Chang, piano

Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F Minor Op. 52

David Geng, piano