LAMORINDA WEEKLY | 14-year-old piano prodigy advances in International Piano Competition


Andrew Navruzyan Photo provided

Moraga native and 14-year-old piano prodigy Andrew Navruzyan was chosen from an intense field of pianists from across the globe to advance to the International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival semifinal round. Preliminaries were held in early June where Andrew gave a riveting performance of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. He competed in the semifinals for a chance to perform the piece as guest soloist with the Boulder Symphony on their 2019-20 Education Series.

The International Keyboard Odyssiad and Festival, U.S.A., is a five-day summer piano competition and festival featuring over a dozen guest artists and pianists in daily master classes and presentations, mini-recitals, the live semifinal and final rounds of the Olympic-styled competition, and five nights of world-class concerts by internationally renowned pianists. The festival and competition took place July 29 through Aug. 3 in Fort Collins, Colorado at the foothills of the majestic Rocky Mountains and featured performances by the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo and Van Cliburn gold medalist Vadym Kholodenko.

Andrew has been playing piano since a very young age and is also a gifted violinist. He studies piano with international performing Steinway Artist Joseph Irrera and violin with Jeremy Cohen, founding violinist of Grammy-nominated Quartet San Francisco. In addition to his classical music studies, Andrew also plays piano in his high school's jazz band and performs throughout the community at nursing homes, school fundraising events, and museums. Andrew, with a perfect 4.0 GPA, also manages to find time for rowing, baseball, advocating for the environment through prize-winning essays, and exploring aerospace engineering.

Additional information can be found at: http://odyssiad.com/