"Mikael Ayrapetyan makes the best possible case for this music,enshrined in a fine recording."

- International piano

News

SECRETS OF ARMENIA at CARNEGIE HALL

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. 24 Armenian Classical Composers. US Premiere

Secrets Of Armenia in Los Angeles

Armenian Genocide Memorial Concert

Secrets of Armenia in Fresno, California.

Armenian Classical music recital

Secrets of Armenia. Charity Concert

Charity Armenian Classical music recital at St. Leon Cathedral

The United States of America highly appreciated Mikael Ayrapetyan's activity

The Secrets of Armenia International Music project will continue its activities in the U.S.

A Whole in 12 - Author's album of Mikael Ayrapetyan

12 piano compositions are already available

Secrets Of Armenia. Spotify

Mikael Ayrapetyan's Spotify recordings have been listened to more than 17 million times in 167 countries

Baal HaSulam - Melodies of the Upper Worlds

Worlds World premiere recordings. Mikael Ayrapetyan - piano

About

Innovation, experience and responsiveness have been the hallmarks of the Secrets of Armenia project since its inception in 2010.

Working together with our partners, we continue to set standards of excellence in the promotion of Armenian classical music, including international management, organization of concerts and tours in different countries.

Albums

Armenian piano music

Steve Arloff
MusicWeb International, August 2015

All the music here is highly enjoyable and draws one back for repeated listening. Pianist Mikael Ayrapetyan is the perfect vehicle to drive these pieces. Yerevan-born himself the music inevitably runs through his musical veins and all the nuances inherent are subtly illuminated by this skillful musician. This is an extremely enjoyable disc.

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Abramian. 24 preludes for piano

Jed Distler
ClassicsToday.com, July 2016

Mikael Ayrapetyan’s assured technique and natural flair for his countryman’s aesthetic result in performances that effortlessly fuse poetic nuance and high-octane virtuosity. …Well worth hearing.

Bagdasarian. 24 preludes for piano

Colin Clarke
International Piano, January 2015

Mikael Ayrapetyan makes the best possible case for this music, enshrined in a fine recording.

Komitas. Piano and chamber music

Sang Woo Kang
American Record Guide, July 2017

One of the pioneers of ethnomusicology, Vardapet (Komitas) played an important role in the dissemination and recognition of Armenian music, especially in collecting folk materials. These works are simple, lyrical pieces based on folk themes. Ayrapetyan’s straightforward playing is well-suited to these short works…

Stepanian. 26 preludes for piano

David Denton
David's Review Corner, June 2017

Published in three sets of eight Preludes, the Armenian composer, Haro Stepanian added a further two just before his death in 1966, all here recorded for the first time. Musically educated in Russia, he was to return to his homeland to become a teacher while at the same time adding a portfolio of works that included five operas, three symphonies and much chamber music. Included in his solo piano scores were the Twenty-six Preludes. all of which came after the Second War, though stylistically they belong to a previous generation and owe much to Chopin and Rachmaninov. Certainly they show no affinity to the musical upheaval that had taken place in the early 20th century, these scores of melodic beauty, with an Armenian folk language interwoven into the fabric of an easy-going attraction.The very fine Armenian-born soloist, Mikael Ayrapetyan, has already brought to the Grand Piano label music by three compatriots, Komitas, Bagdasarian and Abramian, and I hope he continues to draw our attention to more neglected music. Here he gives refined and sensitive performances that seem so serve the composer’s style.

Barkhudarian. Piano music

David Denton
David's Review Corner, May 2018

The Armenian-born pianist, Mikael Ayrapetyan continues his invaluable survey of music from his homeland, though in this case the link is a little more tenuous. Sarkis Barkhudarian was born in Georgia in 1887 where he first learned to play the piano as a very young child, before being admitted into the Berlin Hochschule, eventually graduating in St. Petersburg. As a composer he was to meet all of the Communist party diktats following the Revolution, eventually returning to Georgia to head the composition section of Tbilisi Conservatory. He was active in most genres including works for the theatre and concert hall, but today his name largely resides in his works for solo piano, his style belonging in the era of Glazunov, though he was to live through to 1973. It would be difficult not enjoy his music, though, with thirty-six tracks on the disc, you will gather that these cameos are essentially pretty tunes that he leaves largely undeveloped, and most are of folk-inspired origins. As a sampling point try the last three of the Twelve Armenian Dances (tracks 14 to 16). You need clean finger articulation that Ayrapetyan can supply in abundance, and the recorded sound is excellent. Its all makes a pleasing diversion.

Tigranian. Armenian Folk Dances, Mugam arrangements

Stephen Estep

American Record Guide, September 2019

The Armenian Folk Dances are from 1935; Tigranian transcribed the melodies faithfully and added accompaniments that complement them well…they are nicely detailed… Ayrapetyan plays everything well…

Mikael Ayrapetyan. A Whole in 12

Grego Applegate Edwards

Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review, June 2019

Pianist-composer Mikael Ayrapetyan (b. 1984) strays into melodic territory with his own sensibilities and it all may give you pleasure I trust, depending on what your ear wants to hear. I speak of his A Whole in 12, Miniatures for Piano (Grand Piano 809), which presents to us 12 lyrical solo piano works that have a rhapsodistic lyricism and a soaring sort of introspection that in lesser hands could well degenerate into New Age lullabies. It is all very tonal, and fine for that. It is thick with chordal accompaniment throughout, the left hand offering up broken arpeggiated, sometimes near-Alberti chordal patterns quite pianistic, a constant factor. I find myself listen to the left hand and finding it interesting in itself as I hear this album repeatedly.

Baal HaSulam. Melodies of the upper worlds

David Denton
David's Review Corner, May 2019

The sleeve note with the disc relates the life-journey of Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag, born in Warsaw into a Jewish family in 1885, he spent most of his life in Jerusalem. He was to become known as Baal HaSulam as he devoted his life to the Kabbalist Book of Zohar. If that means little to you, I can add from the disc’s enclosed booklet that it is ‘an ancient spiritual wisdom that empowers us improve our lives, and to achieve a lasting fulfilment’. It was during his two years in London, beginning in 1926, that he composed the cycle ‘Melodies of Upper Worlds’ in a series of tunes without words that have been arranged for the keyboard by the Armenian pianist, Mikael Ayrapetyan. The titles I have shown in English translations, though, like myself, you may find little in the music to picture those words, but they were intended to be easily memorised for singing. Maybe best to start at track 16, Saint, which, from a musical point of view, is a score of substance as it leads into the final Beloved of the Soul. Born in 1984, Ayrapetyan studied at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatoire in Moscow, and is now a very active concert artist and composer. Here he has also acted as Producer and disc Editor for a recording made in the Conservatoire last year.

Spendiarov. Complete piano works and chamber works with piano

Chukhajian. Piano works

Komitas. Songs. (Yulia Ayrapetyan - piano)

Rob Barnett

MusicWeb International, April 2021

Grand Piano continue their strong Armenian line. Grand Piano continue their strong Armenian line with no sign of fatigue. While they have pianists of the calibre of Mikael Ayrapetyan at their bidding may they long persevere with music from this neglected treasury. Each of the 38 pieces across these two CDs is separated by a good helping of silence; a classy touch which speaks volumes for the artistic judgements being made by musicians and record company. Add to this excellent work-specific notes by the pianist and a plethora of world premiere recordings with clarity and impact.

David Denton

David's Review Corner, February 2021

Born in 1837, Tigran Gevorki Chukhajian, was a leading figure in Armenian music in the second half of the 19th century, fusing together East and Western influences. He was obviously very familiar with the music of Chopin in his use of delicacy, and also of Liszt in his technical showpieces that are included in this well filled disc, the twelve tracks displaying a composer who could offer a wealth of memorable melody. Go no further than the opening Impromptu that would have been for his own concert use, and we are made aware that he was obviously a highly skilled pianist. It is said that his mature education came from time spent in Italy, where he also enjoyed a career as a conductor of some renown, particularly in the theatre, biographies I have researched are so totally different from one to the other, the pianist on this release, Mikael Ayrapetyan, pointing out that his eventual death in 1898 was in poverty and totally unknown. So let me continue my admiration of the disc with the Grande Valse where he perfectly brings together the big gestures and the ‘Illusions’ of the title. The extended Caprice, with its big octave passages, is exciting for the listener, and fiendish for the performer, while the two Polka’s have an uncomplicated charm. But I must now comment on the superb playing of Ayrapetyan who is devoting so much time and effort in bringing Armenian music into our lives, and if you enjoy the music of Liszt, you must certainly place this at the top of your shopping list. As with his previous discs, it was recorded in the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and belongs to the finest piano recordings I have ever heard. © 2021 David’s Review Corner

David Denton

David's Review Corner, February 2022

Born in Turkey in 1869, but moving with his family to Armenia when he was twelve, Komitas became one of the nation’s foremost composers in the early 20th century. Having been musically educated in Berlin, he was to live an eventful and almost nomadic life collecting folk songs on his travels through Armenia, Persia and Turkey, usually notating them on a single line of music for further use. That he would explore that avenue of use to form complex scores, his many years of collection still left on his death, in 1935, a vast quantity where only the vocal line exists, and there were also those where he had simply added a basic piano accompaniment. This, the second disc of his music to appear on the Grand Piano label, the opposite route with songs taken back to basic piano arrangements, a task that has been undertaken by the Russian pianist and pedagogue, Villy Sargsyan. Thirty-five are included on this disc performed by the Russian-born pianist, Yulia Ayrapetyan, her busy career using the United States as her base for international concert tours. The tracks are mostly of cameo length, some little more than a few seconds. The music of no great technical difficulty but pleasing to hear. Recorded in the Great Hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 2019 and 2021.

Ekmalian. Piano works

Remi Franck

Pizzicato, January 2022

Traditional Armenian music has been transferred into classical music by quite a few composers. Makar Grigori Ekmalian is one of them, and he has transferred the folk material with its lyrical expressiveness into his piano music in a particularly beautiful way. The main work of the Rimsky-Korsakov student, the Patarag (Divine Liturgy), was canonized in 1895 and is still used by the Armenian Church today. A selection of it, along with the 10 Armenian Folk Songs and other pieces, can be heard on a CD with Armenian pianist Mikael Ayrapetyan. The interpretations have a moving character and create a very special atmosphere of well-being in the listener.

Elmas. Complete piano works Vol.1

Stephen Page

Lark reviews, December 2022

Elmas. Complete piano works Vol.2

The Northern Echo, March 2023

This second volume features once again Mikael Ayrapetyan, who continues his remarkable work in developing and popularising classical music from his native Armenia.