Pianist Raffi Besalyan to Perform at Baylor University on November 1

Acclaimed pianist Raffi Besalyan will perform a recital for the Lyceum Series at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 1, 2016, at Roxy Grove Hall. Prior to his concert, Mr. Besalyan will teach a master class at Baylor’s Department of Music from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, October 31, 2016.

In addition to being a full-time assistant professor of piano at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Raffi Besalyan keeps a busy schedule. He spent a portion of his summer in France as a guest artist for the Cap Ferret Music Festival. Hundreds of audience members attended the concerts during the 10-day festival. Recently, he was in Japan giving performances, teaching master classes and adjudicating competitions. Shortly after his return to the US, he gave a recital at Cherry Hill Concerts in Warrenton, North Carolina, where he received wonderful praises from an enthusiastic audience.

Hailed as “a true heir of the mainstream of Russian pianism, like Horowitz” (CHOPIN Magazine, Japan), Raffi Besalyan has established an international reputation as a magnetic and passionate performer. In recent years, he has dazzled audiences in North and South America, Europe, Russia, and Asia as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Critics have praised his performances as “jaw-dropping” (Web Music Review, Japan), “superb” (Overture Concerts, Nelson BC, Canada) and “technically brilliant” (New York Concert Review).

Mr. Besalyan’s numerous guest appearances include, among others, the Osaka Symphony Orchestra (Japan), the Orchestra Sinfonica Del Festival Di Chioggia in Venice (Italy), the Yerevan Symphony Orchestra (Armenia), the Belgorod Symphony (Russia), the Kharkov Symphony (Ukraine), the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, the Owensboro Symphony (Kentucky), the Fox Valley Symphony (Wisconsin), the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Pro Musica of Detroit, The Embassy Series in Washington, D.C., the “Keyboard Karma” series of Vancouver, “Overture Concerts” in Nelson, Canada, a concert tour and master classes in Japan, solo recitals in Izumi Hall and Phoenix Hall in Osaka, recitals and master classes in Tokyo and Kyoto, a recital tour in celebration of Niigata Nippo newspaper’s 70th Anniversary, recitals in Rachmaninoff Hall and Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in Russia, a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., live broadcasts of solo recitals for PianoForte Salon Series Live on 98.7 WFMT in Chicago and WPR’s Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen, and appearances in New York with the Jasper Quartet for Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music and with Metropolitan Opera tenor Jon Garrison.

As an Armenian-American virtuoso and award-winning recording artist, Raffi Besalyan has received excellent reviews from music critics in the US, UK, Italy and Japan. His debut solo album, Dance, Drama, Decadence (IMC Music, Japan), has earned international accolades since its release in June 2012. The album received the prestigious “Jun-Tokusen Award” from The Record Geijutsu, Japan’s leading classical music magazine, and was chosen as “Classical Album of the Month” by Mainichi Shinbun, one of Japan’s largest newspapers. Released in March of 2015 by GRAMMY® Award-winning record label Sono Luminus, Mr. Besalyan’s new album, The Return, is his first critically acclaimed recording of solo works by S. Rachmaninoff and A. Babajanian and is distributed by Naxos. Mr. Besalyan has also recorded The Bach-Busoni Edition Vol. 1 with Sara Davis Buechner which was release in 2008 by Koch International Classics.

For upcoming performances, full biography, recordings, reviews, booking information and more, please visit www.raffibesalyan.com. Also contact Tina Doerr, Manager, by e-mail: tinadoerr@solarus.net or by phone: 715-479-6414. Video clips of Raffi Besalyan’s performances can be seen at www.youtube.com/user/TAOmusicarts.