Narek Arutyunian and Ying Li

Clarinetist Narek Arutyunian is an artist who “reaches passionate depths with seemingly effortless technical prowess and beguiling sensitivity” (The Washington Post). As soloist with orchestra, his performances include the Copland Clarinet Concerto with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall, Artie Shaw’s Concerto for Clarinet with The Boston Pops, the Mozart Concerto with Oregon’s Newport Symphony and New York’s St. Thomas Orchestra, appearances with Prague Radio Symphony, the Kaliningrad Philharmonic, the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, and a recording of the Weber Concertino for clarinet with the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra.

As First Prize Winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Narek was presented in debut recitals in New York at Merkin Concert Hall and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center. He has also performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and for the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Lied Center of Kansas, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, Weis Center for the Performing Arts, and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. This season, Narek will perform as soloist with the Riverside Symphony and in recital once again at Arizona Friends of Chamber Music.

Narek has performed extensively in Australia, Asia, and in Europe, including at the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the Palazzo del Principe in Genoa. He has appeared at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Juilliard’s ChamberFest, the New York Festival of Song, Krzyzowa Music Festival in Poland, and Germany’s Usedomer Musikfestival. He has also performed as both a clarinetist and Klezmer soloist for the Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish off-Broadway production. In addition, Narek recently performed and spoke at the House of Representatives in Boston, Massachusetts for the 104th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

Born in Armenia, Narek’s family moved to Moscow when he was three. As a teenager, he won First Prizes in the International Young Musicians Competition in Prague and the Musical Youth of the Planet Competition in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory as a student of Evgeny Petrov, received a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Charles Neidich, and then earned a Master’s Degree with Mr. Neidich at the Manhattan School of Music on a Leon Russianoff Memorial Scholarship.

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Twenty-four-year-old Chinese pianist Ying Li was the First Prize winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize. She has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions, including the Antonio Mormone International Prize, Sarasota Artist Series Piano Competition, Brevard Music Festival solo and concerto competitions, International Liszt Piano Competition for Young Pianists, and third prize at Minnesota Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition. In spring 2021, she was also a finalist at Concours Musical International De Montreal.

Ying has performed with many orchestras including her most recent debut at Teatro Alla Scala in Milan with L’Accademia Orchestra del La Scala and Maestro Toshiyuki Kamioka. She has also performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra with Maestra Lina Gonzalez-Granados, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with Maestra Xian Zhang, Brevard Music Festival Orchestra with Maestro Ken Lam, and Longwood Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Ronald Feldman. As an avid chamber musician, Ying has appeared at prestigious festivals around the world including Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland, Ravinia’s Steans Institute in Chicago, La Jolla Music Society in San Diego, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut.

Highlights of her 21-22 season includes a Mozart Concerto tour in Germany with NWD-Philharmoniker and conductor Jonathon Heyward, recital at Sala Verdi of Milan, and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series Appearance. Ying was also featured on WQXR's "Eine-kleine Birthday-musik," a free, all-Mozart livestreamed concert from The Greene Space in New York City, to celebrate Mozart's 266th birthday.

After starting piano lessons at age five in China, Ying was a student at the Elementary School division of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, then she moved to Philadelphia in 2012, at age fourteen, to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jonathan Biss and Seymour Lipkin. After receiving the Bachelor of Music degree at Curtis Institute in 2019, she received her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School in New York with Robert McDonald in 2021.