Raphael Minaskanian Information

Minaskanian, Raphael (born Nov. 1941) Iranian, music player and piano trainer He was born in an Armenian family whose members were music lovers. His mother was playing piano and his father was a skilled violinist and Raphael from the time he was only six he started to learn to play music. His first teacher was Mrs. Haq Nazarian and then he attended the classes of Immanuel Malik Aslanian. He passed the primary course in the private French school and the second course in the Firooz Bahram high school. By receiving a high school diploma, he left Iran for the USA to study medical science, but after two years studying in the medical faculty by the encouragement of Ab Zarkoo, the master of piano and manager of the music department of California University in Los Angeles (UCLA) he left medical faculty and started to learn music. Professional Activity He learned to play the piano from childhood. For the first time at 10, he stepped into the scene and when he was very young he debuted the first live classic piano recital in the Iran National Television which has been recently established. Minaskanian immigrated to the USA but after living there for a while he went to England in 1960 and many times paid a visit to Italy. By the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he returned to Iran and when he was in England attended the classes of great masters of piano-like Carl Ulrich Schnabel (1909-2001) Austrian pianist in Italy and Olina Kabosh (1893-1973) Britain pianist, originally Hungarian in London and also in the Julliard School of New York. His first appearance in London was in the Royal Festival Hall which his performance was praised by the critics. Eric War, the celebrated critic called him a “promising piano player” and declared that he plays masterly and makes the audience full of excitation. By coming back to Iran, Arno Babajanian the celebrated Armenian composer and piano player invited him to cooperate with him to perform his wonderful work under the name of Armenian Rhapsody which was to be done at Tehran university. Minaskanian from 1993 started to teach music at Azad University and then at Tehran University and within the recent two decades, he actively presented in the field of teaching and performing (solo, chamber orchestra, and orchestral concerts) in Iran, European countries, and the USA. He played piano as a soloist in the celebration of the birthday of Aram Khachaturian, the Armenian composer. He also participated in many musical events along with the orchestra of string musical instruments. Minaskanian besides playing music and educational activities is very active in social affairs and has held some performances for charity affairs especially for supporting people specific diseases. He held two piano recitals on the commemoration of his master Immanuel Melik Aslanian for the benefit of this person who suffers from specific diseases. He also is one of the Nights of August 2013 which was named the Night of Beethoven held a concert in the Vahdat Hall with the participation of the Persian Orchestra on the commemoration of Melik Aslanian which was welcomed by the lovers of classical music. In the spring of 2016 in the Shiraz Hall of Hafez, he held a workshop for training piano playing. In the 31st Fajr International Festival, he held a piano recital in Vahdat Hall which was welcomed with great passion. A t the present time Raphael Minaskanian has allotted most of his time to teach music and he also is invited ceaselessly for Judging the musical competitions.