Nikolay Madoyan


Nikolay Madoyan is an Armenian virtuoso violinist who has been appearing throughout the world with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. Madoyan's continuous performance of 59 world classics of different styles and epochs has been entered in the Guinness World Records book as an “Officially Amazing” achievement.
Nikolay Madoyan is the prizewinner of numerous international violin competitions. He performs a very complex repertoire. He played by memory, in one evening, Paganini 24 caprices played live in one concert, Bach Six Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Solo, Eugène Ysaÿe's Six Sonatas and Paganini's all six violin concertos.
He studied with Hrachya Bogdanyan, Zakhar Bron, Miriam Solovieff and Isaac Stern.
He recorded several CDs with Danish labels and and the German label , as well as numerous digital audio and video recordings. His discography contains more than 20 CDs.
Nikolay Madoyan has been awarded the title of the Merited Artist of Armenia for supreme mastery and excellence in the promotion of arts.

Early life and education

Nikolay Madoyan was admitted to the Tchaikovsky Music School in Yerevan, where he studied under the patronage of professor Hrachya Bogdanyan. Impressed by the 13-year-old talent, Russian violin professor Zakhar Bron invited Madoyan to continue his studies at the Novosibirsk Glinka Conservatory. In the following years Madoyan won the 1st Prize at the All-Russian Competition for Young Violinists and became the laureate and the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the International H. Wieniawski and K. Lipinski Competition for Young Violinists in Poland.
Together with Prof. Bron's wunderkind class, at the invitation of the Lübeck Music Academy, Madoyan moved to live and study in Germany where he made a debut at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival with the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. Nikolay Madoyan appeared in the “Five Young Russian Top Talents” series along with V. Repin, M. Vengerov, N. Luganski and E. Kissin, playing Beethoven's Violin Concerto at the famous Concertgebouw Amsterdam and other European venues.
In 1991, Madoyan won the 1st Prize at the International Kullenkampf Competition of Violinists in Cologne, Germany. Moreover, he became the laureate at the Tokyo International Competition of Violinists and was awarded the Special Prize for the Best Performer of the Japanese Work.
Madoyan took master classes from outstanding violinists Isaac Stern and Miriam Solovieff and for years he would perform together with Isaac Stern in France and other countries.
Nikolay Madoyan holds Ph.D. degree in Violin Performance from Berlin University of the Arts and was bestowed the title of the “Honorary Professor” at the Yerevan State Conservatory.

Career

After graduating from the Lübeck Academy, Nikolay Madoyan launched series of concert tours in Germany with the London Mozart Players chamber orchestra conducted by Matthias Bamert. Then he had concert in the United Kingdom with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, where among other works he played the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto conducted by Arnold Katz.. Madoyan's performances with the Netherlands and Rotterdam Symphonic Orchestras and Cologne Chamber Orchestra were in the highlight of the local media. Madoyan was the founder of the “Madoyan-Westenholz-Denitzen” trio, which successfully toured around Europe, featuring works by Shostakovich, Schubert, Beethoven and Ravel.
A collaboration of Nikolay Madoyan and the pianist Elizabeth Westenholz resulted in CDs, released by Kontrapunkt and Cowbell, featuring violin sonatas by Mendelson, Grieg, Schubert, Prokofiev, Strauss and Franck. In European newspapers and magazines reviews were written about Madoyan's CD records, among them The Strad and Gramophone reviews, which specifically highlighted successful collaboration and the releases of Prokofiev's, Grieg's, and Schubert's Violin Sonatas as one of the best.
Madoyan is well known for his virtuoso performance of technically challenging and very large music pieces. Madoyan performed all six Paganini's Violin Concertos, playing them by memory in one concert.
Nikolay Madoyan's innovative method of muscle balancing technique during play helped him to deliver a continuous performance of the complex classical and folk compositions lasting more than 33 hours with five-minute breaks every hour, so becoming The Guinness World Records breaker.
Nikolay Madoyan has been bestowed with the title of the “Honorary Professor” of the Yerevan State Conservatory. In 2003 Madoyan received the President Prize of The Republic of Armenia for the best performance of the fifteen violin miniatures created by the 17–20 centuries outstanding composers.

Performances

Madoyan's repertoire includes an extensive range of violin works. He has performed with a number of world's best symphony orchestras and conductors such as Helmut Muller-Bruhl, Richard Hickox, Kurt Mazur, Frans Brüggen, Claudio Abbado, Arnold Katz, Dmitri Kitayenko, Valery Gergiev, Leopold Hager, Richard Dufallo, Karen Durgaryan, Kees Bakels, Nikolai Alekseyev, Vasily Sinaisky, Erich Vechter, George A. Albrecht, Janos Furst and many more.
The list of the concert halls he performed at includes Teatro di San Carlo, Tivoli Concert Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Festival Hall, Verdi Theater in Milan, Berlin Kammermusiksaal, Teatro Regio, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Edinburgh Queen's Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Hamburg Musikhalle, Stuttgart Beethoven Hall, Duesseldorf Robert-Schumann-Saal, Vienna Kammermusiksaal, Reims Concert Hall, Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgrade Philharmonia, Tokyo NHK Hall, Beijing Big Concert Hall, Montreal Place des Arts, Zurich Tonhalle, Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall, Kuhmo Concert Hall, Big Concert Hall of Moscow Conservatory and many more.

Prizes and awards

Prizes

Kultur aus Köln wrote about Madoyan's performances with the Netherlands and Rotterdam Symphonic Orchestras and Cologne Chamber Orchestra:
The UK-based monthly The Strad wrote: "Madoyan has the mellifluousness of tone and the well-honed cantabile quality to bring off youthful pleasantries.