Heghine Rapyan

It is through her thoughtful and tenderly expressive music-making that she most deeply touches the emotions of audiences.
Her first concert tour in Germany, Austria and Netherlands was at the age of 16, after winning the Kawai Artist Price in 2001 at Armenian Legacy international piano competition in Yerevan. Since then, Heghine has given recitals internationally and participated regularly in music festivals, including performances at Megaron Hall, Athens, Rudolf Oetker Halle in Bielefeld, Shenzhen Concert Hall in China, etc. With the co-operation of the Austrian Cultural Forum, she presents the music of Austrian composers around Europe.
Heghine has been a soloist with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenian National Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg University Orchestra and Female Symphony Orchestra of Austria. She has collaborated with the Japanese conductor Hisayoshi Inoue and her performances of Liszt 2nd Piano Concerto have been broadcasted by the Tokyo National Radio.
Heghine has received prizes in competitions in Armenia, Italy and Greece, including the 1st prize at Stephan Elmas International piano competition. She has participated in Masterclasses and worked privately with important teachers and musicians of our times: Alexander Bonduriansky, Jerome Rose, Jura Margulis, Robert Levin, Klaus Hellwig, Ludmil Angelov, Arnulf von Arnim. In 2011 she met in Salzburg the great Austrian pianist Ingrid Haebler who as of then, became her main mentor and advisor. Mrs. Haebler’s coaching had a great impact on Heghine’s interpretative style and pianism.
Born in the town of Gavar, Armenia, she was fascinated by the sound of the piano already in her early childhood and started to play at the age of three. She took piano lessons at the local music school with A.Zagaryan and later worked with Armen Babakhanian in Yerevan, at the Tchaikowsky Music School for talented children. Soon after, at the age of 15, she entered the Yerevan State Conservatory where she graduated with the highest honours and was awarded the “Red Diploma”. Later, she continued her piano studies in Austria, at the University of Mozarteum in Salzburg, where she worked with Profs. Peter Lang and Rolf Plagge (piano) and Profs. Imre Rohmann and Tünde Kurucz (chamber music). In 2017 she graduated Mozarteum with distinction and was awarded the academic degree Master of Arts (MA).
Heghine lives in the town of Mozart, Salzburg. She is a resident pianist in Mirabell Palace Concerts since 2017. Her first CD album with complete piano sonatas of the Armenian composer Stephan Elmas, will be released in March 2023 in Munich, Germany under the label Solo Musica / Naxos.
In 2020 Heghine’s recital was broadcasted in Austrian Radio Ö1, where she brilliantly performed known and unknown pieces of austrian and french composers.
 
"...In Rapyan’s powerful multi-layered playing, every single sound carefully fitted into the soundscapes presented with sovereign self-confidence. She makes the Piano to sound like an Orchestra.” - Neue Westfälische 2011