Sowing Wild Notes

06/10/2006 11:33:38 PM MDT
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Jennifer Barrett

Armenian-born pianist will unleash his unconventional style, 'hot talent' in SLC

LOGAN - Aram Arakelyan didn't make it past the first round of a piano competition in his home country of Armenia about seven years ago, but he still made an impression.

"This kid had hot talent," recalled Paul Pollei, a judge at the event. "I grabbed him by the neck and said, 'Come with me.' "

Pollei, director of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation, encouraged Arakelyan to practice hard and audition for the Bachauer Young Artists Competition to be held two years later.

Arakelyan practiced and came to Utah, he played, and again, he lost. But rather than return home disheartened, he remained in Utah, living in Logan and attending Utah State University on a piano scholarship.

Now the Utah resident is back at the Bachauer, this time in the organization's premier contest, the International Artists Competition, for musicians age 19 to 32. He will be the only Utah pianist in a field of 41 contestants.

Pollei still thinks he's a hot talent: "His was one of the best auditions I heard."

Modest and soft-spoken at age 22, Arakelyan laughs when he remembers meeting Pollei. "I played pretty badly, to tell the truth," he said of the Armenian competition. "I was very young and sloppy."

The problem, he said, was that he was more concerned with adding his own touches and colors than playing the notes.

"The music might say play loud here and softer

Aram Arakelyan leafs through music in one of Utah State University's tiny piano-rehearsal rooms, where he spends hours each day practicing. (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune )

here, but I might play the opposite just for effect," said Arakelyan. "Competitions don't value that."

But Pollei said that is precisely the gift he saw.

"One of the great piano teachers, Heinrich Neuhaus, said the sign of talent is sowing wild oats. By that, he meant playing fast and loud," said Pollei. "Aram was a kid who was sowing his wild oats."

After Arakelyan was accepted for the 2001 Young Artists Competition, his family had to scramble to come up with money to pay for airfare. His parents, both musicians, sold a modest second home and earned about $600 - roughly equal to four months of his father's income in the former Soviet republic - to go toward the $1,000 ticket, said Arakelyan.

At age 17, he flew to Salt Lake City. He was alone in a foreign place, jet-lagged and in the middle of an intense competition. "It was a little scary," he said. He didn't win, but it was still a lucky break because he remained in Utah. If he had returned to Armenia, eventually he would have been drafted into the military. Doing a soldier's job would not have been good for his hands.

"It would have been a disaster as far as my music is concerned."

At USU, he has studied with Gary Amano, chairman of the piano department.

"Unlike most students, he already has wonderful creative ideas about the music," said Amano. "It's very difficult to teach someone like that because you don't want to stifle that creativity. And yet in competition, I'm always trying to decide if his creative ways are going to fly with the judges."

Amano said Arakelyan has a distinctive and unusual sound that comes from being a sensitive listener. He can't describe the quality, but said even piano novices would notice the difference if they sat in the audience. Amano has also taught Arakelyan to focus on the score and be faithful to the composer's intention.

Who will win the upcoming Bachauer is anyone's guess, but Amano likes Arakelyan's chances.

"In these competitions, there are a lot of people who will play very accurately and technically well. Aram brings something different, a very special ingredient."

How does Arakelyan like his chances?

"One in 40," he said with a smile.


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