Babayan was born in
Gyumri,
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,
Soviet Union, and began his musical studies at age six with Luiza Markaryan, then was taught by pianist
Georgy Saradjev, a leading representative of the St Petersburg school and former student of
Vladimir Sofronitsky. He later studied under
Lev Naumov,
Vera Gornostayeva and
Mikhail Pletnev at the
Moscow Conservatory. In 1989, he traveled to the United States. That same year he won first prize in the
Cleveland International Piano Competition and the
Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition. After he won first prize in the Palm Beach International Piano Competition and first prize in the
Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, Babayan won first prize in the Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow in 1992 and third prize at the
Busoni International Piano Competition. His programming covers a wide range of repertoire, often including baroque and classical composers such as
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Jean-Philippe Rameau,
Domenico Scarlatti,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and
Ludwig van Beethoven, Romantic composers such as
Sergei Rachmaninoff, and modern works by composers such as
Witold Lutosławski,
György Ligeti, and
Arvo Pärt. He is particularly recognized for his prominent interpretations of
Johann Sebastian Bach. He frequently appears as a soloist with such orchestras as
Gewandhausorchester,
Rotterdam Philharmonic, The
National Orchestra of Belgium, The
Cleveland Orchestra,
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, and the Czech State Philharmonic. His students have included the pianists
Ching-Yun Hu, Second Prize winner of the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein Competition;
Stanislav Khristenko, winner of
Cleveland International Piano Competition and fourth prize winner at the 2013
Queen Elisabeth Competition, and
Daniil Trifonov, Third Prize winner of 2010
International Chopin Piano Competition, First Prize winner of the 2011 Arthur Rubinstein Competition, and First Prize winner of the 2011
Tchaikovsky Competition. Since 2013 Babayan is also a member of the faculty at The
Juilliard School, and in 2023 joined the faculty of
Southern Methodist University's
Meadows School of the Arts; he currently serves as Meadows' Joel Estes Tate Endowed Chair in Piano and artist-in-residence. In 2015, Babayan performed two
Prokofiev concertos at
BBC Proms with
Valery Gergiev and
London Symphony Orchestra. In November 2019 Sergei Babayan was Curating Artist at
Konzerthaus Dortmund, where he presented a festival of performances with close musical friends, including
Martha Argerich,
Daniil Trifonov,
Mischa Maisky,
Sergey Khachatryan, and
Valery Gergiev and the
Mariinsky Orchestra. In July 2018, Babayan signed an exclusive recording contract with
Deutsche Grammophon. Babayan's first album for Deutsche Grammophon was released in March 2018. Prokofiev for Two, for which he formed a duo partnership with
Martha Argerich, comprises Babayan's transcriptions for
piano four hands of movements from Prokofiev's
Romeo and Juliet and other works. ==References==