On June 10, the award-winning Armenian-American pianist Kariné Poghosyan performs an all-Khachaturian recital at Carnegie Hall presented by the presented by The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations. We spoke with her about the significance of Khachaturian’s music, her live-streamed recital series that earned her a loyal world-wide following, and more. Tickets to her June 10 recital are available at CarnegieHall.org.
You are performing a program entirely of music by the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian on June 10 at Carnegie Hall. Tell us about the significance of his music in both his homeland and in 20th century music in general?
Aram Khachaturian once remarked “My whole life, everything that I have created belongs to the Armenian people.” To this day, he remains the heart of the musical life of my homeland! Our greatest concert hall in the capital Yerevan is named after him. He appears on postage stamps and banknotes. His music is an inseparable part of the Armenian DNA. Surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly), I resisted his music while I was living in Yerevan up to the age of 18. I did not truly appreciate something that was just so very close by.
It was not until my mid- 20s in New York in fact, when I had to choose a topic for my doctoral thesis at the Manhattan School of Music, that I felt a calling to explore the rich world of Khachaturian’s music. Needless to say, I was swept off my feet and simply could not get enough of his work! After writing my thesis on Khachaturian’s Piano Works (which I soon hope to publish), I was engaged by the Naxos label to record my first commercial recording with his solo piano works and ballet transcriptions. What attracted me personally to his piano music is the fact that, unlike Chopin, Liszt or Rachmaninoff, not only was Khachaturian the dictionary definition of a late-bloomer, but he was never known as a particularly gifted pianist. And yet, he had such a phenomenal natural instinct for the instrument that his piano works feel so comfortable to play. In “pianist shop talk,” we simply would say, “it just feels good under the fingers.”
In spite of much hardship endured because of the Soviet government's restrictions and at times punishments, Khachaturian rose to the status of a global celebrity, traveling the world, having his work celebrated by the greatest orchestras and on the greatest stages, receiving the deep admiration from legends like Hemingway, Salvador Dali, and Charlie Chaplin.
Khachaturian's story is that of a life-affirming optimist, whose music has filled listeners all around the world with his own joie de vivre. And for all Armenians around the world, he is a role model - a heroic and inspiring survivor, who made the world richer with his timeless work.
As an Armenian-American pianist, what special insights do you bring to this music? You regularly perform Khachaturian’s music around the world. Tell us how his music is received in different parts of the world.
It has been an absolute joy to see the warmest response to the piano music of Khachaturian wherever I have performed it around the world. He is truly a universal composer - his writing is so intuitive, so human, allowing the listener to reconnect to something very core-level within them, whether it is their most vulnerable gentleness or deep inner rigor and power! I have seen audiences of every imaginable origin truly connect to this music and then react with such energy at the end, which has only inspired me to pursue the goal to play incredible music more and more, in as many different parts of the world as I possibly can!
Your repertoire goes far beyond Khachaturian’s music, of course, covering the range of Baroque to 20th-century eras. This year you are in the midst of a monthly recital series with a brilliant concept: Each month your program focuses on a different key; twelve notes, twelve months. Tell us how you came up with this idea and how the series evolves as the year progresses.
This truly groundbreaking project began as a small-scale, exclusively virtual performance for my Patreon members, a global audience tuning in live on Zoom. The very first broadcast in January 2021 was a humble endeavor from my New York apartment, on my 100-year-old Boston Chickering piano, the only technology being my own MacBook Air. I had invested in a proper microphone, but in the hurry of preparations, I used the wrong USB cord and later discovered to my horror that I had plugged in the printer and not the microphone. Thankfully, the grateful audience forgave the technical limitations, and with each recital my monthly viewership grew.
In 2023, I upgraded the broadcasts to performances from various small concert venues around the city, and since 2024, thanks to securing the support and funding from AGBU and Seta Nazarian, who is supporting the concert series in memory of her mother Artemis Nazarian, as well as Marlene Yerevanian, I was able to accomplish an extraordinary dream and reformat the series into full-scale multi-camera professional broadcasts with top sound engineers.
Without a doubt, my monthly concert series are one of my proudest artistic achievements. These inspirational, innovative monthly events bring together music-lovers for three different experiences – the unique live performances, a chance to learn more about the music and composers, but above all, the feeling of togetherness as they connect with each other in the community. In my own way, I wanted to create a similar experience to Leonard Bernstein’s Young Peoples’ Concerts, except mine would be for people of all ages and backgrounds, tuning in on Zoom from all over the world on the last Sunday each month to experience the joy of live music. My vision is to expand their reach and perhaps be able to present them via PBS or NPR one day.
One of the most inspiring aspects of my monthly series is the degree of artistic freedom and creativity I get to have. I choose a unique fascinating theme each year. In 2022 the theme was Musical Time Travels, inspired by my own geeky sci-fi interests and a book/film script I am working on. Last year, I did several mini-series including a 4-concert “Vienna” series with Schubert, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven programs in each, and then followed by a 4-concert “Chopin” series. This year, I feel had a particularly inspired theme with my “12 Notes!” The amount of music I prepare and therefore the amount of work I have to put in to not only practice and perform, but also coordinate and curate all of the production elements sometimes feels nearly superhuman. Yet, on June 27, 2025 I am preparing to perform my 53rd consecutive monthly recital broadcast, and I cannot be more excited!
During your journey as a concert pianist, what has been a particularly inspiring vision or motto you have come back to?
I was interviewed by The Washington Post a few years back, in which I shared a very special memory from my childhood in Yerevan. As a little girl at around the age of 6, I would place one of my doll cases just so I could see my fingers moving in the reflection of the piano and then ask my Mom to put on an old LP record of the legendary Emil Gilels playing the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. I would then proceed to pretend to play it myself, as I would mimic the finger movements I imagined Gilels making during his performance.
Every time in my life when I have a tough day, and my self-belief is extra low, I remind myself of this really peculiar but - what I later came to realize- rather extraordinary phenomenon! There were no pianists in my family! No one was forcing me as a little girl to do this, in fact I had not even started serious piano studies at this point. Yet, I just somehow had the inner need to do these “pretend” performances....really, the very definition of a “Calling”. Then I see that little 6-year-old Kariné look at all the amazing things I am doing now as a pianist and just be over-the-moon happy!