Nikita Mndoyants, born of Armenian descent in 1989, won the 2016 Cleveland Competition. He is a pianist of elegant finish and imagination, his touch rounded and liquid-toned, his feeling for line, texture and form glowingly arched, never a harsh attack or fractured phrase to jar the senses. An expressive lyricist (Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto was his choice for Cleveland, comparably Mozart’s D minor Concerto, including his own cadenzas, at the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition), rumination before r...
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Von Max Kirschner Nikita Mndoyants war einst eins von vielen Talenten, die sich durch die harten russischen Klavierschulen gekämpft und am berühmten Moskauer Konservatorium ihren Abschluss gemacht haben. Der 29-jährige Pianist ist heute einer der wenigen Russen, die sich schließlich durchsetzen konnten — und allmählich eine internationale Karriere aufbauen. Nach seinem ersten Platz bei der Cleveland International Piano Competition 2016 gehört er zu einer Gruppe von Wettbewerbs-Siegern, die j...
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Winner of the 2016 Cleveland and 2007 Paderewski Competitions, as well as a finalist in the 2013 Cliburn, the Russian pianist Nikita Mndoyants would seem to be well on his way to an international career. He is also an accomplished composer who, at the age of 27, teaches orchestration at the Moscow Conservatory. His new release on the Steinway label shows him to be an excellent pianist as well as a wise and thoughtful musician. Beethoven’s Op 126 Bagatelles seem not so much interpreted as r...
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The Russian pianist offered up works by Beethoven, Schumann, Prokofiev & Mndoyants at New York's Carnegie Hall on 7 June. Nikita Mndoyants Carnegie Hall, New York City. 7 June 2017 By Donald Hunt for Pianist magazine. There comes a time when a rising talent comes onto the scene so polished that there isn’t much to say other than to simply applaud it. Such is the case in the Carnegie Hall debut of Nikita Mndoyants, the winner of last year’s Cleveland Interna...
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Over the last couple of decades, the public has somehow lost confidence in the ability of piano competitions – with their eager hopefuls spending months refining mandatory entries and the same jurors moving from one location to the next, carrying their prejudices with them – to really churn out the most thoughtful and innovative interprets of a generation. It used to be that winning an important competition would almost guarantee a successful career. Not any more, but laureates are still offe...
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