Isaiah Aram Minasian

Isaiah Aram Minasian ( Isaiah/aɪˈzaɪ.ə/(Hebrew name)| in Armenian Եսայիա Մինասյան | in Persian اشعیا میناسیان) born 28 February 1986), is a British violinist and cellist.

Minasian was born in 1986 Brighton, United Kingdom to a musical family. His mother Maria Salari, is a violinist /cellist and his grandfather was a pianist. Minasian began playing the violin at the age of five on the training of his mother and afterward continued educating with well-known violinist as Arsalan Kamkar, in Iran. He participated in some classical performances with Tehran symphonic orchestra in conducting of Shahrdad Rohani, a well-known Iranian conductor. In year 2010, he moved to Paris and entered the Conservatoire National Superieur Musique de Paris in the masterclasses of Ami Flammer and Frederic Laroque, and concurrently attended courses of chamber music with Itamar Golan, Emmanuelle Bertrand and Philippe Bernold. Afterwards he continued his studies on music at Sorbonne school of Music and Musicology, where he's founded as a talented pupil and was awarded to continue his studies at Juilliard school of music and dance, in New York.

The year 2011 to 2014, he played at Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra in conducting of Myung-whun Chung. In there, Minasian was also the third assistant conductor over two years. From the year 2012 to 2014, he was the master soloist of Sorbonne Symphonic Orchestra.

He plays on a "Pietro Antonio dalla Costa" violin from Treviso made in 1763. His deep lyrical feeling and captivating virtuosity, bring out each facet of the pieces into the most beautiful, stirring, exciting and difficult words in the repertoires.

In 2014, Minasian considered pursuing a doctorate level fellowship scholarship for in Musical Arts (Violin, D.M.A.) at the Juilliard School, New York, United States but passed it up in April 2015. Hi suffered memory loss following brain surgery treatment for meningitis in June 2015.

He judged one the biggest instrumentalist's competitions in France "Le meilleur joueur de l'instrument à cordes" in April 2016.

After passing an inactive period in live performances, Minasian began his gold performances again in July 2016 with Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra in Amsterdam and Paris. He got the first honorary Offenbach Music Award for his impressing solo Violin and Cello playing.

Minasian had private performance with accompaniment Aleksey Igudesman to top Russian and Turkish government officials and got honorary award from Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia in August 2016. The days after, he had played as the soloist with Moscow Symphonic Orchestra in the Victory Day celebration in Moscow.

Lately Minasian returned back to Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra and he is now the first assistant of Myung-whun Chung. He won the 1st award Jean Sibelius Violin Competition at Helsinki and the 1st award Concours d'excellence Confédération Musicale de France as well.

Minasian set the World Record as fastest violinist for performing “Flight of the Bumblebee” in 66 seconds, averaging 13 notes per second.

• 2008 B.A in Fine arts Tehran University of Art, Iran
• 2010 M.A in Plastic Art, Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Florence, Italy
• 2013, DNSPM of Music and Musicology. L'Universite Paris-Sorbonne(Paris IV), Paris, France
• 2014, withdrawn student of Doctorate in Musical Arts(Violin, D.M.A.) at The Juilliard School, New York, United States

• 2007, won the 2nd prize at the 9th Beijing Music Festival BMF in Beijing, China.
• 2007, First Prize winner at the South Korea Symphony Orchestra Standard Life-OSM.
• 2008, won the 2nd prize at the International Foundation "Parnassus" in Paris, France.
• 2011, won the 1st prize Norwegian Soloists MMES Oslo, Norway.
• 2011, won the 3rd prize in Cello playing at Lisker Music Foundation, London, UK.
• 2011-2014: violinist at Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra.
• 2012-2014: master soloist of Sorbonne Symphonic Orchestra.
• 2013, won the full scholarship for violin soloist of Juilliard Music School.
• 2014, won the 3rd prize at Long-Thibaud-Crespin International Competitions of violin soloists in Paris, France.
• 2014, received the honorary award of cello playing from Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• 2014, won the 1st award for cello ensemble playing at BBC Young Musician Contest (BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four), Edinburgh, UK.
• 2014, received award of top 20 cellists at International Rostropovich Cello Competition (in memorial of Pablo Casals) Paris, France.
• 2014, Semi-finalist of violinists at Concours Jeunes-Artistes de Radio-France(France Musique) Paris, France.
• 2014, recipient of the Long-Thibaud-Crespin International Competitions of violin soloists in Paris, France.
• 2015, selected as laureate of the 2015-2016 Classe d'Excellence de violoncelle Gautier Capuçon from the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France.
• 2015, received the 2015 Men's Musical Club of Paris Career Development Awar, France.
• 2016, judging the biggest instrumentalist's competitions in France "Le meilleur joueur de l'instrument à cordes".
• 2016, received first "Offenbach Music Award" for Violin and Cello, Paris, France.
• 2016, got honorary award from Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.
• 2016, won the 1st award Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, Helsinki.Finland
• 2016, won the 1st award Concours d'excellence Confédération Musicale de France, Paris.
• 2016, set the World Record as fastest violinist for performing “Flight of the Bumblebee” in 66 seconds, averaging 13 notes per second.