Svetlana Navasardyan’s name is written in golden letters in the history of our performance art, Lilit Yepremyan, PhD in Art, Doctor at Yerevan State Conservatory said in an interview with Panorama.am, speaking of the RA People’s Artist, pianist Svetlana Navasardyan.

To note, Svetlana Navasardyan who is a professor at the Yerevan State Musical Conservatory is marking today the 70th anniversary of her birthday.

Svetlana Navasardyan was born in Yerevan in 1946. By the age of 9, she was demonstrating a rare gift, performing a recital of the complete Bach 2- and 3-part Inventions. She studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Professors Yakov Zak and Vache Umr-Shat, following the traditions of the great Heinrich Neuhaus. Wider recognition came at the age of 19, when she won the Schumann International Piano Competition (1966), launching an international career as a piano soloist.

Among the other major competition won by Svetlana include the International Bach Competition (1968), Queen Elizabeth Competition (1972), and the Sidney Piano Competition (1977). Hailed as “the great Armenian pianist”, she has toured more than 40 countries – including the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Japan, China, Australia, Egypt, and Kuwait. Svetlana has performed in numerous prestigious music festivals, and in major concert halls around the world – including the “Bolshoi Hall” of the Moscow Conservatory, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Salle Gaveau of Paris, the Sidney Opera Hall, and the Asahi Hall in Tokyo, among many others. She has performed with such esteemed conductors as Vladimir Spivakov, Evgeni Svetlanov, Valery Gergiev, Vassili Sinayski, Karl Etti, Ruben Aharonian, and many others.

“Svetlana is a world-known person, great master and musician, She is phenomenon as a pianist and a citizen alike,” Mrs. Yepremyan said.

To note, both Svetlana Navasardyan and Lilit Yepremyan were in the piano class of professor Vache Umr-Shat.
“Umr-Shat was the one who created his own school in Armenia, that was unique, interesting and deep. There are few people who could grasp and truly develop his principles. The most significant idea of the professor’s approach is that music is a road toward a clarity, transparency and the nature, where no formalities and artificial beauty exist,” Lilit Yepremyan described Vache Umr-Shat’s piano school.

To Yepremyan’s words, Svetlana Navasardyan represents herself completely through her comments, which generate a way of thinking raising the most sacred layers of the human being and the universe. Yepremyan also highly appreciates the pianist’s interpretations that are seen as unique approaches. “Every note passed through herself belongs to her, and no one one can play in the same way,” Yepremyan explained.

“Music is the mirror of a spirit and never lies. If a human being loses his values, the music plays no more. Navasardyan’s music fully expresses the richness of her soul and great thinking,” Yepremyan said.

The Speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly Galust Sahakyan today sent a congratulatory message to Svetlana Navasardyan on the occasion of her birthday anniversary, emphasizing her individual accomplishments as a pianist as well as her pedagogical input in educating generations of musicians.