Violinist Nanor Seraydarian ‘24 won first place in the 2021-2022 Cornell Concerto Competition in December. As winner of the Concerto Competition, Seraydarian will perform Ernest Chausson’s “Poème” as a featured soloist alongside the Cornell Symphony Orchestra at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 24 at Bailey Hall. The concert is free and open to the public with no tickets required.
Seraydarian was introduced to “Poème” three years ago while doing research on one of her other favorite composers, Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe. She discovered the piece was dedicated to Ysaÿe and was originally titled “Le Chant de l'amour triomphant” (“The Song of Triumphant Love”) – a short story telling the tale of a musician and a painter who were in love with the same woman.
“I became fascinated with how well the piece captured the eerie unfolding of the tale, and decided that I want to play it,” Seraydarian said. “Chausson’s tragic death makes this piece even more ominous and dark. ‘Poème’ has become one of those pieces that the more I play, the deeper it grows in meaning and the closer it gets to my heart.”
A sophomore pre-med student majoring in music, Seraydarian studies violin with associate professor Ariana Kim, plays chamber music, and serves as concertmaster for the Cornell Chamber Orchestra. She studied music at the Colburn School of Performing Arts before coming to Cornell and has participated in several music festivals as well as performed during two fundraising banquets organized by the United Nations.
The April 24 concert program, conducted by Michelle Di Russo, also includes Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, which depicts a confrontation with Fate and is one of his most popular works.
A world premiere by Cornell doctoral composer Daniel Sabzghabaei rounds out the concert. Sabzghabaei is a composer and vocalist whose work aims to emphasize the malleability of time and how we experience it, not just in the concert hall but in everyday life. Recent awards for Sabzghabaei include the Grand Prize in New York Youth Symphony’s First Music Commission, the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award (honorable mention), the CULTIVATE Fellowship from Copland House, and a National Sawdust: New Works Commission for a new work for JACK Quartet.
Meher Bhatia is a Communications Assistant in the Department of Music.
