The Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanyan has been creating headlines in the music world ever since her early childhood, being hailed as a prodigy from a young age, and winning more than 18 international awards and prizes, including First Prizes at the 1997 Chopin piano competition, the 2005 Josef Dichler Piano Competition in Vienna and the 2007 Piano Campus International Competition in France. Making history at the age of 15 by becoming the youngest-ever student to enrol in the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Arghamanyan cemented herself in the minds of the general public when she walked away with the First Prize, as well as all the Special Prizes at the Montreal International Musical Competition in 2008 at the age of 18, thus marking her as the youngest winner in the competition’s history.

Since then, Arghamanyan has moved from strength to strength, winning over audiences in renowned concert halls all around the world, including the Musikverein Vienna, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Konzerthaus Vienna, Philadelphia Kimmel Center, Petronas Hall Kuala Lumpur, Osaka Concert Hall, to name a few. Over the course of her career, Arghamanyan has collaborated with some of the most distinguished orchestras and ensembles in the music world, such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, Berlin Radio-Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Monte-Carlo, Toho Orchestra Japan, and the Bern Symphony Orchestra, amongst many others.

Recent highlights have included her debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Santa Rosa symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie, as well as a USA tour with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, and a European tour with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2016 Nareh has been selected as the artist-in-residence in Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel under the supervision of Louis Lortie and Avedis Kouyoumdjian. She is currently a professor at the Wiener Musikakademie in the keyboard department.

We met up with Arghamanyan to look back on her storied career, her experience as an Armenian pianist abroad, and the upcoming events that she has on her horizon.

These past couple of years have been particularly challenging for people all over the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the music industry has been no exception. How have you managed to rise up to the challenges which Covid-19 has thrown at us, and do you think there is anything that the industry can learn from this experience?

Well they’ve been a very different two years, certainly! Like everyone else really, lots of things have been disrupted and changed, many of them at the last minute, which has made it very difficult to plan anything. As musicians it is in the nature of our work to travel around a lot and for a while Covid made that completely impossible which was a big blow, and even when things started opening up again you never knew for certain if a festival or concert would go ahead until you were actually doing it because there were so many last-minute cancellations and rescheduling of dates due to different restrictions in different countries. I myself have been quite lucky to be honest, because although things slowed down, I managed to keep myself busy with one or two events every month, and I actually didn’t mind having some more free time to spend at home and with my family at first because I’ve been running from concert to festival to competition all my life, so a bit of free time was nice! For many other musicians though, especially those who were just starting out in their careers, I know it’s been very bad in some cases and I feel that we need to make sure as an industry to create as many opportunities as possible for them to help them get their plans and their goals back on track as quickly as possible.

With regard to the music world, perhaps the biggest lesson we can learn is to be a bit more flexible. This world is one which plans in terms of years, with everything being planned a long time in advance and not much room for flexibility. Covid has forced us to change in that sense because things sometimes need to be amended months or even weeks in advance which used to be unthought of. It’s not an ideal situation of course, but perhaps retaining a bit more flexibility than before wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

You have, as you said, been deeply involved in the music world all your life, from a very young age. Has that forced you to miss out on certain things as you grew up or did you always manage to reach a level of compromise?

Compromise is always key, definitely. Music has been my life for as long as I can remember, and of course that means I had perhaps a different upbringing to other people just like any professional in any other industry really. And it was never something which was forced upon me which is the most important thing. I may have had less ‘free time’ than others for instance, because I needed to practice, but I always enjoyed playing, it was never a punishment or something I had to be ordered to do. And while some things are different, music also opened up possibilities and opportunities that many people would dream to have – to travel, to meet new, interesting people from all over the world – it broadens your mind and helps you grow in a very different way. So yes, it’s a question of compromise and balance which is crucial especially in those early years when you’re trying to have as normal a life as possible while still pursuing music religiously, but at the same time I feel that for everything you may ‘miss out on’, so to speak, music will give you back tenfold at the end of the day.

As a former child prodigy yourself, who has managed to transform your early potential into a professional career, what advice would you give young aspiring musicians today?

I think the most important thing is to be certain that this something that you want to pursue professionally – because sometimes when you’re very talented at something it seems like the obvious choice but you have to love it as well, enough to keep on doing it for years – and to be aware of the sacrifices and they hard work and effort you will need to put in, although as I said I think it’s ultimately all worth it. Music is a wonderful career, but it is not always an easy one, especially when one is still starting out and working to become established.

Another thing which I see a lot, even with my own students, is that some young musicians find themselves obsessing too much about competitions as if they are an end in themselves. I myself am a laureate of over 20 international piano competitions, and they’re very important of course – winning the Montreal International Musical Competition when I was 18 was crucial for my career and really helped to get me where I am – but they are not the be all and end all. Even if you win a competition this is just the beginning, and you need to have an eye on what comes next, which can be almost as tough because you have to depart from the established framework of the competition and start trying to forge your own path and career.

Speaking of your career, you’ve performed at some of the most celebrated concert halls in the world with renowned orchestras and conductors from all around the globe. If you were to look back at some of the highlights of the past years, which moments would spring to mind?

I feel very honoured because as you said there have been many truly beautiful moments over the years. Winning the Montreal Competition will always be high in my list of happy memories, and I will never forget making my debuts in places like the Musikverein or the Lincoln Center, for instance. Some of the most treasured events though, are those where I’ve had the chance to spread the music and culture of my native Armenia abroad. I always try to perform music by Armenian composers and collaborate with Armenian musicians whenever I get the chance, to help show the world the talent that Armenia has to offer, and these moments are extra special because I’m not just performing beautiful music but I’m broadcasting my country’s culture. In 2018 for example, I was approached by Konstantin Ishkhanov, the President of the European Foundation for Support of Culture (EUFSC), who invited me to take part in a festival which he was organising in Malta completely dedicated to Armenian culture. I got to perform with other Armenian musicians and present works by Tigran Mansurian and Aram Khachaturian and others, and there were exhibitions and screenings by Armenian filmmakers as well; it was really beautiful to see my country’s culture celebrated in such a way in a different land.

Of course I’ve done many concerts in Armenia itself as well which are also special to me. One of the most recent ones was at the Armenia International Music Festival, which is also organised by Konstantin Ishkhanov, along with the ASSO, which was also very nice to do. So there have been many wonderful events, but I think the ones where I get to express my own heritage tend to stand out very sharply.

As a professional performer who’s also a professor at the Wiener Musikakademie in Vienna, how difficult, if at all, do you find it to balance out the two worlds? Do they intrude on each other at times, and is there one which you prefer over the other?

In terms of preference, I wouldn’t think so no. They both offer wonderful things in different ways. In many ways actually I find that they complement each other very well because the things I do and learn sometimes when I’m performing, I can then tell my students about which works well. I find that having both these facets in my life helps keep things interesting because teaching can be extremely rewarding but at the same time I feel it’s important for me to keep in touch with my performing roots and there’s a special incomparable feeling you get when you go on stage. Doing both also allows me to look at things with a dual perspective which is very beneficial I think, especially when I’m judging piano competitions. These can be tricky thing sometimes; I remember back in 2019 before Covid came I was invited by Konstantin Ishkhanov and collaborated with the EUFSC to organise the “Classic on Danube” International Music Festival and Piano Competition in Vienna, and it was so important for me to be able to look at it as both performer and educator. I was the head of the jury board for the competition we held there, which was a preliminary round for the ’14 Ways to Dubai’ series so it was quite an important one, and being able to assess the participants from both perspectives was a very good thing I felt. I’m going to be heading back to that competition this year actually, for the 2022 edition in April, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what this year’s group of participants have to offer.

One last question, looking to the future, is there anything on the horizon that you’re particularly looking forward to?

We’ve all learnt to be cautious about being too excited about things during Covid unfortunately because they have a habit of changing very quickly so you never know, but if as I truly hope, everything remains on track I have an upcoming tour with the Bergisch Symphony Orchestra in Germany this April which I’m very much looking forward to because it’s been a while since I toured. There’s other stuff planned throughout the year of course, but that’s the closest and biggest one for now.