Reading Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert to feature pianist Vartan Arakelian

2026-03-09 - 22:14

READING, Mass. — The Spring concert of the Reading Symphony Orchestra will feature the young Armenian pianist Vartan Arakelian, making his orchestral debut under the direction of music director and conductor George Ogata. The Saturday, March 21 concert program, titled “Rhythm and Fire,” will feature the passionate Ritual Fire Dance from the ballet El amor brujo by Manuel de Falla, followed by the youthful and energetic Piano Concerto No. 1 by Sergei Prokofiev with Vartan Arakelian, 18, as soloist. This first half blazes with fiery energy and virtuosity. The concert concludes with Symphony No. 2 by American composer Paul Creston, a work that spotlights rhythm itself — an element so central to his musical voice that he devoted an entire treatise to it. Arakelian is a senior at Buckingham Browne and Nichols High School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He began his piano studies at the age of four under the guidance of Lilit Karapetian-Shougarian, and he has had masterclasses with Alexander Korsantia, Krystian Tkaczewski, Renana Gutman, Christopher Hinterhuber and Avedis Kouyoumdjian. Vartan is an award winner of the 2025 YoungArts National Arts Competition. His other achievements include Second Place at the 2024-2025 Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, Second Prize at the 2023 Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford, Connecticut, and First Prize at the 2022 New England Piano Teachers’ Association (NEPTA) Mildred Freiberg Competition. As an active chamber musician, Vartan performs with friends at senior living centers around Boston and has appeared annually at NEPTA’s student recitals as well as the association’s Scholarships for Hope Charitable Recital. He was invited to perform in the 2025 Musical Armenia Concert at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City and, last summer, he was the orchestral pianist for the U.S. premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Gaia Theory with the MIT Summer Philharmonic Orchestra. George Ogata Founded in 1931, the Reading Symphony Orchestra has an old and cherished tradition of providing quality music to the Greater Reading Community. Under the leadership of Maestro George Ogata, who currently serves as the seventh music director, the ensemble has attracted players from over 30 communities and four states and played to an increasingly wider audience in a variety of venues. With a mission to provide a performance outlet for talented musicians of all ages and occupations, the orchestra especially focuses on reaching out to young people to learn and appreciate music. The concert will take place at Reading Memorial High School on March 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at ReadingSymphonyOrchestra.org.