YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS: The young Armenian cellist Sevak Avanesyan has become the first cellist (concertmaster) of the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra. His father, Samvel Avanesyan, told Armenpress about it. The results of the contest for the vacant position and Sevak’s victory became known in late February of 2014.

“It has already been for more than a month the contest for the vacant position of the first cellist was announced for the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra. 128 candidates out of 1000 applicants were provided with the opportunity to participate in the contest. A real fight began among them. As Sevak did not allow us to be present at the contest, in the end of the day, I called him with fear in my heart and he told us that four of them had passed to the finals”, - tells Samvel Avanesyan. Later the name of the only winner of the contest has become known. The Armenian young man admired everybody with his wonderful performance.

Sevak Avanesyan was born in 1989 in Armenia, into a musical family. After the Great Armenian Earthquake of 1988, they moved to Yerevan, where he started studying the cello at age 5 with well-known Armenian cellist, Medea Abrahamyan, student of legendary Mstislav Rostropovitsch. He went on to study at the Tchaikovsky Specialized Secondary and Musical School in Yerevan until 2003. That year, his entire family moved to Brussels, Belgium, where he joined the class of Ms. Viviane Spanoghe at the Royal Conservatory. He graduated there with the highest distinction in 2010. The same year he was accepted in the class of the renowned cellist Claudio Bohorquez in Hans Eissler Hochschule in Berlin.
Besides his regular studies, Sevak Avanesyan has received precious advice from world famous artists, such as Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, Maria Kliegel, Liuis Claret, Peter Bruns, Garry Hofman, Wolfgang Boettcher and Igor Oistrakh.

Since the youngest age, Sevak Avanesyan has travelled the world. As a member of the "Young Virtuosos" of AMAA. Sevak performed as soloist and chamber musicians in Europe, USA, Canada, China, in halls as prestigious as the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Ford Hall of Toronto, the Sidney Opera House, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. More recent concert seasons brought him to such venues as the Festival de Radio France Montpellier, the Festival of Menton or the Brahms festival (Brussels).

An ardent chamber musician, Sevak Avanesyan is a permanent member of the “Avanesyan piano trio”, studying with the Artemis quartet at the Queen Elisabeth College of Music. The “Avanesyan piano trio” received the “Golden Lable” price by the Belgian music press association in 2012.

He has equally collaborated with Augustin Dumay, Philippe Graffin and Pascal Devoyon, Pavel Gililov, as well as with some of the most respected musicians of the younger generation: Alexander Khramuchin, Lily Maisky, Julien Libeer, Alissa Margulis, his brother Hrachya Avanesyan…

In March 2011 Sevak became the first price winner of “Belgische Stichting Roeping” promotion.
He is a laureate of many international competitions, such as the International cello Competition “Gerardmer” (France), the European Competition for Young Soloists (Luxemburg), the Sint-Pieters-Woluwe cello competition, and the most recently he won the first price at the Lions Club international cello competition. Sevak Avanesyan plays on the very first Matio Gofriller cello from 1689 kindly given to him by Mischa Maisky.