The 2024 Armenian Pop Music Night will feature pianist Marta Aznavoorian |

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BOSTON – The Friends of Armenian Culture Association will present the 71st Pop Music Festival Armenian Night at Boston Symphony Hall on Wednesday, June 5 at 7:30 p.m.

Pianist Marta Aznavoorian will be the guest soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra. She will perform George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Bluemarking the 100th anniversary of this iconic American masterpiece.

The orchestra and conductor Lockhart will also perform Happy birthday (The Lord’s Prayer) was composed by Magar Yegmalian and arranged by Rouben Gregorian. As the evening’s special guest, Mary Vartanian, 109, a Holocaust survivor who was recently honored at the State Capitol Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, will be present with her family.

In addition to the show, two-time Tony Award winner and Broadway star Sutton Foster will take to the Symphony Hall stage for an evening exploring the Great American Songbook and more.

Hailed as “a pianist of exquisite skill and pure musical impulse”Boston Globe), Armenian-American pianist Aznavourian is known for her inspired, dynamic playing and wide emotional range. The multiple Grammy-nominated artist performs worldwide to critical acclaim as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She made her professional debut at age 13, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the invitation of Sir Georg Solti. She subsequently continued to perform with orchestras in the United States and abroad, including the Sydney Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Chicago Symphony, and the New World Symphony at the invitation of Michael Tilson Thomas.

Aznavoorian has received many awards and honors, including First Prize at the International Stravinsky Competition and a Special Award for Best Interpretation of a Contemporary Commission. As a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Talent Search Tier 1 Award, Aznavoorian became a Presidential Scholar. She has been invited to the White House, where she met with former President George H.W. Bush, and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. With expressive energy and originality, Aznavoorian has recorded extensively for Naxos, Warner Classics, and Erato, and has just released her seventh album with Cedille Records.

As a champion and lover of contemporary music, she has recorded and premiered works by some of the world’s leading contemporary composers, including William Bolcom, Osvaldo Golijov, Augusta Reed Thomas, Shulamit Lang, Stacey Gallop, Joan Tower, and Jennifer Higdon, among others.

A student of renowned teacher Menachem Pressler, Aznavorian received her Bachelor of Music and Artist Diploma from Indiana University and her Master of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. A dedicated educator and philanthropist, she has given courses and masterclasses throughout the United States and abroad. She is on the faculty of DePaul University and the Chicago Conservatory of Music, where she was an artist-in-residence.