Cellist Laura Navasardian to Debut at Armenian Night at the Pops

Cellist Laura Navasardian (Photo: Seungho Choi)

BOSTON, Mass.—The Friends of Armenian Culture Society will be presenting the 68th annual Armenian Night at the Pops on Friday, June 14 at 8 p.m.

The featured soloist will be the young and enormously talented cellist Laura Navasardian of New York. At age 15, Navasardian will be the second youngest emerging artist to perform with America’s beloved orchestra, the Boston Pops. She will join maestro Jacomo Bairos who will be having his own debut at Boston’s storied Symphony Hall. Navasardian will perform Tchaikovsky’s Pezzo Capriccioso for cello and orchestra, as well as The Swan from the Carnival of Animals by Camille Saint-Saens.

Navasardian was the first prize at Cremona International Music Competition in Italy in 2014. She was also the top prize winner at the 2016 New York Music Competition as well as the 2016 Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition in Salzburg, Austria. She has performed at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall as a guest performer and winner of American Fine Arts Festival. She performed on numerous occasions at the Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York; Auditorium Museo Del Violino with the Festival Orchestra in Cremona, and Saal Mozarteum in Salzburg.

As winner of the Kaufman Music Center Concerto Competition, Navasardian performed a concerto with Kaufman Music Center Orchestra at Merkin Hall in 2018, conducted by Nathan Hetherington and appeared with 92Y School of Music Orchestra under conductor Tomo Matsuo at the Y92 Centennial concert in New York.

The evening’s program will also include A Symphonic Journey with the Boston Pops performing favorite orchestral works and anthems originating from European composers, put in context by Rick Steves, America’s leading authority on European travel. The concert will conclude with Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” (Europe’s official anthem), paying homage to continent’s motto of “United in Diversity.

Tickets for this concert are available online.