Pianist Nikita Mndoyants to Present Keyboard Academy Guest Recital

Renowned musician Nikita Mndoyants, a Russian pianist and composer, will present a guest recital at OBU on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in Raley Chapel's Yarborough Auditorium. Mndoyants, who recently qualified as a top six finalist in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, will be performing as a part of the OBU Keyboard Academy. The Keyboard Academy serves to assist in preparing students for recitals during the school year.

Born into a family of professional musicians, Mndoyants began to play piano and compose music at an early age. Mndoyants gave his first public recital when he was 10, and one year later released his first recording of a live performance at the Sibelius Academy Concert hall in Helsinki, Finland. Since then, he has toured throughout China, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

He has been invited to perform in several festivals, including the Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdroj, Poland; the International Keyboard Institute Festival in New York; and a festival dedicated to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. A frequent guest of orchestras, Mndoyants has worked with Eri Klas, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Charles Ansbacher and Alexander Sladkovsky.

Mndoyants currently resides in Moscow, Russia, where he is pursuing postgraduate piano studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he previously received his degrees in piano with Nikolay Petrov and Alexander Mndoyants, and composition with Alexander Tchaykovsky.

Admission is free for OBU students and Keyboard Academy attendees. Admission for general public is $10. To purchase tickets or learn more information about the OBU Fine Arts Office, call 405-585-4300.