The sisters' first public performance was at the ages of 4 and 8 at their Armenian church in Evanston, IL. They won First Prize in the Illinois Bell Young Performers Competition, resulting in a live performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on PBS.
Since then, they have toured France, Armenia, and Finland, performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and presented countless programs in their hometown of Chicago including a major fundraiser for the Armenian earthquake in 1988. This season, the Aznavoorian Sisters embark on a tour of California, and the Seattle Chamber Music Society presents them in a winter residency.
The Aznavoorian Sisters won the National Foundation for the Arts Award, leading to their appointment as Presidential Scholars in the Arts and performances at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and at The White House, where Ani met President Bill Clinton and Marta met President George H. W. Bush.
They have worked with leading contemporary composers such as Lera Aerbach, Ezra Laderman, William Bolcom, Osvaldo Golijov, Shulamit Ran, Peter Boyer, Augusta Read Thomas, Stacy Garrop, Bright Shen, Pierre Jalbert, Laura Schwendinger, Mischa Zupko, Daron Hagen, Patrick Zimmerli, Vache Sharafyan, Debra Kaye, and Colin Mathews among others.
In 2022, the Aznavoorian Sisters released their début album, Gems from Armenia, on the Cedille Label. The CD features Armenian music and a world premiere recording written for the duo by composer Peter Boyer and Vache Sharafyan. The CD has been receiving rave reviews in the press.
Marta and Ani work with many programs to help create musical training pathways for students from traditionally under-represented backgrounds. They created the Keynote Foundation, which aims to fund these students and help them achieve their full musical potential.
The Aznavoorian Sisters were honored to be selected to showcase at the Chamber Music America 2023 Conference.
Ani Aznavoorian is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician with some of the most recognized ensembles, and she has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras. Ani studied with Aldo Parisot at the Juilliard School, where she won First Prize in the Concerto Competition, the youngest cellist in the history of the competition to do so. This season marks her fifteenth year as Principal Cellist with Camerata Pacifica.
Ani has been a member of the music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, and in the summers has served on the faculty of the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. Marta is an Artist-in-Residence and on faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and is a piano and chamber music faculty member at the DePaul University School of Music. Ani proudly performs on a cello made in Chicago by her father, Peter Aznavoorian.
“A pianist of exceptionally finished technique and purity of musical impulse” (Boston Globe), Marta Aznavoorian is known for her inspiringly spirited playing and vast emotional reach. The multi Grammy-nominated artist made her professional début at the age of 13 performing Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Chicago Symphony at the invitation of Sir Georg Solti. She went on to perform with orchestras throughout the United States and abroad including the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Chicago Symphony and the New World Symphony at the invitation of Michael Tilson Thomas, who was also the conductor.
Marta has performed and recorded with violinists Joshua Bell, Philippe Quint and Stefan Milenkovich, and has appeared at some of this country's most prestigious festivals, including Ravinia, Tanglewood and Marlboro.
Her many awards and accolades include 1st Prize in the Stravinsky International Competition as well as the Special Prize for best interpretation of the commissioned contemporary work.
Marta has recorded extensively for the Naxos, Warner Classics and Erato labels, and has just released her 7th album on Cedille Records. She is a founding member of the GRAMMY-nominated Lincoln Trio, which Fanfare Magazine called the “hottest trio in the business.”
She is a Steinway Artist.
REVIEWS
"True artists showing great sensitivity and great virtuosity at all moments"
—Los Angeles Times
" . . . the superb playing of the Aznavoorians, who are expressive, technically poised and well blended throughout."
—chicagoclassicalreview.com
“. . . a lively and lovely program.”
—Classical Modern Music Review
“. . . in presenting an in-depth overview of the Armenian musical landscape, past and present, the Aznavoorians have done a valuable service.”
—Textura
“The most rapturously poignant album of the year so far is Gems From Armenia, by the Aznavoorian Duo . . . Sisters Ani and Marta Aznavoorian – cello and piano, respectively – draw on their heritage for a lyrical playlist of material that spans from the 19th century to the present. It underscores the disproportionately rich influence this tiny nation’s music continues to make around the globe.”
—Delarue New York Music Daily