Recently described as "having the inner passion paired with Rubinstein's nonchalance" by Thüringer Allgemeine in Germany, Canadian pianist Sheng Cai has embraced the keyboard tradition which epitomizes the greatness of the romantic virtuoso. His performances of major keyboard works of the past centuries have touched audiences and won the praise of critics on four continents. The Toronto Star headlined “This is a young man with real talent... from a clear, singing tone to a subtle sense of rubato to a judicious choice of tempi " and described as a pianist " with great confidence... gave more lucidity, color and power" by the Birmingham News. Sheng Cai has been honoured with a number of prizes and awards and continues to push the boundaries in interpreting both the established and rarities of the piano literature.

Since his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at just fifteen years old, Sheng Cai has performed a broad spectrum of concerto repertoire from Mozart to 21st century composers with invitations to dozens of orchestras worldwide as guest soloist. Recent concerto performances include invitations to perform with the Toronto Symphony, Quebec Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Windsor Symphony, Canton Symphony of Ohio, Fort Collins Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, Irving Symphony of Texas,  and with Shanghai Symphony, Shenzhen Symphony as well as with Philharmonisches Orchester Erfurt in Germany, Krakow Philharmonic of Poland, North Czech Philharmonic, Jalisco Philharmonic and Orquesta Filarmonica Boca del Rio of Mexico, Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota in Colombia among many others. In Canada, Sheng Cai was also invited to perform with the Vancouver Symphony for the lunar New Year Gala Concert and has performed with numerous regional orchestras in the US and Canada from coast to coast such as Kingston, Kamloops, Folsom Lake symphonies, Glacier symphony of Montana. He has recently worked with many conductors such as Keith Lockhart, Yoav Talmi, David Lockington, Robert Moody, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Myron Michailidis, Donato Cabrera, Robert Franz, Dina Gilbert, Guoyong Zhang, Marco Parisotto and Eckart Preu.

In solo recitals, Sheng Cai has been heard in many prestigious venues in North America, such as Steinway Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Chicago's international Music Center, the Cleveland Play House, the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham, CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, and other distinguished venues in Stratford, Elora, Montreal and Winnipeg. In China, he inaugurated the Ningbo concert hall, giving both recitals and concerto performances. As a chamber musician, Sheng Cai has collaborated with a number of fine artists, including the Enso String Quartet. Many of his performances have been broadcast on across North America such as CBC Radio Canada and WCLV Radio station in USA.
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The outstanding Armenian conductor Eduard Topchjan studied violin at the Yerevan Conservatory and went on to study conducting with the prominent Armenian conductor Ohan Durian, followed by valuable consultations from Sir George Solti, Claudio Abbado and Nello Santi.

Topchjan started conducting in 1991 when, with a group of his friends from the Yerevan Conservatory, he created the Serenade Chamber Orchestra. The Serenade at once became the most promising orchestra in Armenia and shortly afterwards it buildup a fine reputation in Europe, winning prizes at various international competitions and releasing highly regarded CDs with several labels. Topchjan toured Europe regularly with the Serenade appearing in more than 700 concerts.

Eduard Topchjan made his début with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000. That same year he was appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the ANPO and began successful appearances with the ANPO in Yerevan and abroad, earning much praise for his interpretations of the main symphonic repertoire as well as of new compositions. By 2001 he had already appeared with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and in 2003 at the Bolshoi Theatre, both times to great acclaim from the audience and musical critics. This was followed by ANPO tours to the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, and France with remarkable appearances in Nuremberg, Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nice and many others. In 2008 the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra led by Eduard Topchjan made a very successful tour to Japan with 15 concerts in the best concert halls in Tokyo, Osaka, Niigata, Nagoya, Hamamatsu and many other venues. The orchestra’s extremely high standard of performance and its conductor were warmly praised in world media.

Topchjan is especially known for appearing with orchestral and operatic repertoire. He has conducted the operas “Aida”, “Il barbiere di Siviglia”; “Madama Butterfly”, “Turandot”,“Simon Boccanegra”, “Otello”, “Rigoletto”, “I Pagliacci”, “Pique Dame”, “Eugene Onegin”, “Don Giovanni”, “Die Zauberflöte”, “Tosca”, “Orphée et Eurydice” and others. Eduard Topchjan appears with such celebrated artists as Placido Domingo, Pinchas Zukerman, Renato Bruson, Giuseppe Giacomini, Sergei Larin, Vladimir Chernov, Vincenzo La Scola, Raina Kabaivanska, Mischa Maisky, Natalia Gutman, Steven Isserlis, David Geringas, Yuri Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian, Diemut Poppen, Emmanuel Pahud, Radovan Vlatkovic, Sergei Nakariakov, Boris Berezovsky, Sergey Khachatryan, Julia Fischer, Isabelle Faust, Daishin Kashimoto, Sergei Babayan, Konstantin Lifschitz, François-Joël Thiollier, Paul Mayer, Alexei Lyubimov, Massimo Mercelli, François-Frédéric Guy, Emmanuel Pahud, Vag Papian, Mario Brunello, Kirill Gerstein, Kolja Blacher, Sergei Krylov, Sergio Tiempo, Simon Trpceski, Alexander Chaushian, Narek Hakhnazaryan, and many others.

As a guest conductor he has performed with 46 important orchestras in Europe, the USA and Asia, among them the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Cologne, the Frankfurt Opera, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Siena Festival Orchestra, the Kärntner Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra del Festival Brescia, Thuringen Symphony Orchestra (two concerts in January, 2022) and others.

He was engaged for the2013-2014 season to appear with the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra (at the Musikverein in Vienna), the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Della Toscana. He has been the Artistic Director of several significant festivals. Since 2007 he has been principal conductor of the Yerevan International Music Festival, which is an annual event that hosts numerous world-famous musicians. The festival marking its 14th consecutive season in 2020 due to world COVID-2019 pandemic was postponed to 2022.

His vast repertoire includes all periods from baroque to contemporary music, symphonic works as well as chamber orchestra repertoire and operas. Many pieces by composers from Armenia and abroad have been written for him and premiered by him and the ANPO.

In August, 2014 the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Eduard Topchjan participated in prestigious festivals in Italy, appearing with concerts in Rimini, Citta di Castello, Merano and Ravello. In October, 2014 he conducted the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra when it appeared in Austria and Germany with a noteworthy concert at the Brucknerhaus in Linz. In 2015 within the Armenian Genocide Centennial tours Eduard Topchjan conducted the ANPO in Denmark, Finland, Norway, USA, Mexico, Lebanon, Poland and Germany. In April 2015 he conducted the Russian National Orchestra and Yurlov State Russian Capella having performed a famous Requiem by Vyacheslav Artyomov. His appearance with Malaga Symphony Orchestra in November2015 was highly acclaimed by Spanish media. In 2016 he conducted the ANPO within the “Stars of the White Nights” festival in Saint-Petersburg with utmost success. In 2017 the orchestra under his baton toured Spain and Germany, in2018 appeared in prestigious Berlin Konzerthaus hall.

From December 25, 2019to January 10, 2020 the ANPO appeared in China with 10 concerts in 9 cities. The tour was organized in collaboration with Wray Armstrong Arts &Entertainment Ltd..

In 2021 Maestro Topchjan and his orchestra has had a very successful tour to the Czech Republic (Brno) and Italy(Florence).

His extraordinary talent and conducting style attracted attention from world audiences and gained him highest critical and public acclaim. In 2007 he was granted the title of Meritorious Worker of Arts of Armenia. In 2011 he was awarded a Gold Medal of the Ministry of Culture of Armenia.

In Autumn 2013, Maestro Topchjan was granted knighthood with the Italian Order of Merit for Labour (OML) by Giorgio Napolitano. On June 28, 2016 by decision of President of RA Eduard Topchjan was awarded with the second-class Medal of Services to the Motherland.

During his tenure the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra celebrating its 90th consecutive season received the status of the National orchestra.

A major composer from Armenia Vache Sharafyan is the author of more than hundred compositions including symphonic works, chamber, choral, vocal music, including the opera “King Abgar”, ballets “Another Moon” (about G. I Gurjieff), “Ancient Gods” (by L. Shant), “the Bride of the desert” /based on Sona Van/.

Sharafyan’s music is widely performed in his native country, but also in the most prestigious international halls in USA, Italy, Russia, France, Canada, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Thailand, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Ireland, England, Israel, Scotland, Iceland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Lebanon, Georgia, Greece, Cyprus and Sweden…

Praised as “stark, mysterious and ultimately majestic” by The New York Times, “complex, deliberate, ultimately captivating․․․” by the Boston Globe, “ingenious…,kaleidoscope of iridescent timbres…, magical” by The Strad, “the most wonderful…  entirely absorbing to the ear and mind” by Chicago Tribune, the works of Sharafyan were commissioned and/or performed by many outstanding artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and “Silk Road Ensemble”, Yuri Bashmet and The Ensemble “Soloists of Moscow”, The Hilliard Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Dresden Symphony Orchestra, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts (2018), Soli Deo Gloria Psalm project, Jacaranda on the Edge fest, Estonian State Male Choir, Sion Fest, OSS, ANPO, Tornoto Sinfonia to mention a very few…

Vache Sharafyan was born in1966 in Yerevan (Armenia). A graduate of the Conservatory of Yerevan in 1990,in 1992 he obtained a doctorate in composition in the class of Professor Edvard Mirzoyan. From 1992 to 1996 he taught at the Armenian Theological Seminary in Jerusalem and is the author of a book on sacred hymns for the Church Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. 

From 2001 was chosen by the great cellist Yo-Yo Ma as an official composer for the Silk Road Project Inc (“Morning scent of the acacia’s song”, “Sun, wine, wind of time”, “Ascending kyamancha”).

In 2007 “Surgite Gloriae” Viola Concerto by Sharafyan was premiered by Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists at the opening of the Philharmonic Season of Moscow at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory Grand Hall as well as at the Elba Isola Musicaled’ Europa International Music Festival.

In 2015-2016 “Surgite Gloriae” was included by the Dresden Symphony Orchestra in the series of sensational concerts “Aghet” dedicated to100 years of the Armenian Genocide. ​ 

2018 premieres include “The Sound of Stone” with animation by Kevork Mourad at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in NY (MET commission).

2020 on March 4 was premiered “Armenian Odyssey” at the Washington National Cathedral, /PCE commission, 100 years’ anniversary of USA-Armenia diplomatic relations/

​2021 – world premieres include of “Amazingly pure and simple things” for piano and choir (crystal glasses, accordion, bass drum), with Armen Babakhanian, Hover State Choir, the Ministry of Culture of RA commission

«Four New Seasons» with Almazian Symphony at the Belgrade National Opera Theater.

Sharafyan was a semester lecturer at UCLA in2011.

Civitella Ranieri Fellow in2006, Bogliasco Arts Center Fellowship in 2013.
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