Since winning the First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition at the age of 22, Narek Hakhnazaryan has performed with most major orchestras and in recitals across the globe at the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues.

Hakhnazaryan has been enjoying truly global career playing with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and with conductors such as Gergiev, Jurowski, Koopman, Alsop, Lintu, Petrenko, Sokhiev, Robertson, Honeck, Noseda, Pletnev, Fisher, Netopil, Fisher, Spivakov, Guerrero and others. He has toured Spain with the WDR Symphony/Saraste, the US with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Järvi and Japan with the Czech Philharmonic/Bělohlávek. Recently Hakhnazaryan toured southeast Asia, performing the complete Bach cello solo suites in Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto. In 2024 Hakhnazaryan founded and became Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of “Artsakh” Orchestra.

Narek Hakhnazaryan recorded soundtracks and was featured in several award-winning Motion Pictures, including Emir Kusturica’s “On The Milky Road”, “Yasha and Brezhnev” and in Animated Documentary “Aurora’s Sunrise”.

Mentored by the late Mstislav Rostropovich since the age of 14, Hakhnazaryan later received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Lawrence Lesser and Master’s Degree at Moscow State Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov. He began his cello lessons at the age of 6 at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan. Hakhnazaryan’s prizes include First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia and First Prize in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan made his debut in Kennedy Centre (Washington, DC) and at Carnegie Hall (New York) at the age of 19.

Narek Hakhnazaryan plays exclusively on “Larsen Strings”.