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Distinguished for the musical color, brilliance and excitement of his performances, the talented Armenian pianist and composer Karen Hakobyan has been acclaimed for his individual style and depth of his interpretations. Hakobyan has received numerous awards, both for performance and composition. In 2006 Mr. Hakobyan won first prize in the MTNA state piano competition. In 2004 Mr. Hakobyan won first prize in the Four Corners Piano Competition, and The Fite Piano Competition. In 2003 he won first prize in the Pinault International Audiotape/Videotape Piano Competition, first prize in the Tourgee DeBose National Piano Competition and first prize in the SummerArts Piano Competition. He has also been a top prize winner in the "Armenian Legacy Pianists" International Piano Competition and the International Festival of Creative Pianists.

Mr. Hakobyan has been a soloist with the Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenia's "Serenade" Chamber Orchestra, Armenian National Chamber Orchestra, the University of Utah Philharmonia, the Salt Lake Symphony and New American Symphony. He has presented solo recitals in Armenia, the United States, Germany and France. His debut recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City on October 4, 2003 was very well received. Phillip Dieckow, concert pianist, New York reviewer, founder and director of the Dieckow School of Music in Hoboken, wrote in his review of Mr. Hakobyan's performance: "It is very difficult for me to be objective with this pianist. I am seldom moved to tears by performances any longer and even more seldom so delighted with breath-taking playing that I feel like dancing. Both were evoked during this young man's performance."

Mr. Hakobyan regularly appears in prestigious festivals and concert series. Some of his festival performance highlights include: the "Lille International Piano(s) Festival" in France in 2005 where he was featured with internationally renowned artists such as Boris Berezovsky, Nicholas Angelich, Piotr Anderszewski, and Philippe Bianconi: "The Pianist as Composer" Festival at Mannes College of Music in 2008 and "The Mendelssohn Salon Yearlong Festival" in 2009 in New York City. He was also featured at "Keys to the Future" Contemporary Music Concert Series in 2009 in New York City.

Hakobyan is a winner of the 2004 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Competition. His "Two Pieces for String Quartet" was awarded the Amadeus Diploma for Composition in 1998 during a competition held jointly by the Belgian Amadeus Association and the Armenian Musical Assembly. In the same year his work was included in the 12 best compositions at the Group Quest (USA) International Competition. In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious Robertson Scholarship in Composition at the University of Utah, primarily based on his Second Symphony, which was performed in Berlin in 2001 at the Young Euro-classic International Festival by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hakobyan has composed numerous works for symphony orchestra, chamber groups and soloists that have been performed in Europe and the United States, including Toccata for Solo Flute Op. 4 No. 2, Prelude and Fugue for Piano Op. 7, Piano Variations Op. 10 No. 1, Piano Sonata Op. 4 No. 1, Elegy for Violin and Piano Op. 5 No. 2, Trio for flute, clarinet and piano Op. 10 No. 2, Trio for cello, clarinet and piano Op. 12, Suite for solo violin Op. 11, Elegy for solo violin and symphonic orchestra Op. 5 No. 3, and Symphony No. 2 Op. 6.

Mr. Hakobyan is currently pursuing Professional Studies Diploma at Mannes College of Music, studying with Dr. Arkady Aronov and is residing in New York City. He has previously studied with Dr. Susan Duehlmeier and Professor Armen Babakhanian.

Pianist Stephen Gosling enjoys a varied career as soloist and chamber musician with a particular focus on the music of our time. He earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the Mennin Prize for Outstanding Excellence and Leadership in Music and the Sony Elevated Standards Fellowship, and was featured as concerto soloist an unprecedented four times. Mr. Gosling is a member of New York New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso, American Modern Ensemble, Orchestra of the League of Composers, and Ne(x)tworks. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Dutch Radio Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can, and Speculum Musicae, among many others. His work has garnered consistent critical acclaim, and he was profiled by the New York Times in October 2005.

Blair McMillen has established himself as one of the most versatile and sought-after pianists today. The New York Times has described him as "riveting,” “prodigiously accomplished and exciting,” and one of the piano’s “brilliant young stars.” He has appeared at the Moscow Conservatory, Miller Theatre, Bard Summerscape, the Aspen Music Festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Caramoor, the Library of Congress, Casals Hall (Tokyo), the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton NJ, and Musica Antica e Nuova at Columbia University. Concerto performances have included the American Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra on a tour of Japan, the Albany Symphony, and the Zankel Orchestra in New York City. In 2006 Mr. McMillen made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist, under the baton of David Robertson.

Known for his imaginative and daring programming, Blair McMillen’s repertoire spans from late-medieval keyboard manuscripts to today’s up-and-coming younger generation of composers. Recent recitals have included performances of selections from the Codex Faenza (some of the earliest-surviving keyboard music in the world, composed in the early 15th-century), a New York recital of piano music inspired by the art of improvisation, and a “Composer Portrait” concert of music by LA Philharmonic music director/composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. His first solo CD “Soundings;” featuring music of Debussy, Scriabin, Liszt, and Bolcom; was released in 2004 to critical acclaim. Other solo recordings include “Powerhouse Pianists” (with Stephen Gosling) on Lumiere Records, “Concert Music of Fred Hersch” on Naxos, and “Multiplicities: Born in ’38” on Centaur.

Dedicated to new and groundbreaking projects, Blair McMillen is intensely committed to performing the music of today. He has premiered hundreds of pieces, and constantly works with both established and emerging composers in commissioning new works for the piano. A founding member of the composer/performer collective counter)induction, and pianist for the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, Mr. McMillen also plays regularly with the downtown-NYC based Avian Orchestra and the American Modern Ensemble. A self-taught jazz pianist, he is regularly involved in improvisation projects ranging from the straight-ahead to the avant-garde.

Raised in San Francisco and Charlotte, NC; Blair McMillen holds degrees from Oberlin College, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School. A past winner of the Aspen Music Festival’s Time-Warner Award, he won the Gina Bachauer Competition and the Sony ES Grant for Musical Excellence while studying at Juilliard. Mr. McMillen resides in New York City and serves on the piano faculty at Bard College. For more information, please visit www.blairmcmillen.com.

Joseph Rubenstein, composer, pianist, and founder of Keys to the Future, is committed to bringing the music of our time to as wide an audience as possible.

Born in 1969, he is a longtime resident of the New York metropolitan area. His expressive compositions combine carefully sculpted melodies, propulsive rhythmic drive, and a subtle harmonic blend derived equally from contemporary sources and music of the past.

He has recently completed Book I of his Romances (the first of a projected three Books). He will present the world premiere of Romance no. 3 (labyrinth) at the Keys to the Future Festival on Tuesday May 19, 2009. Mr. Rubenstein’s compositions have been performed at Weill Recital Hall, Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall, the May in Miami Festival, Yale University, New York University, Makor, Artspace, Bard College, the Society of Composers Festival, and many other venues. In 2008, he received grants from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Yale School of Music’s new AlumniVentures program.

Joseph performs contemporary music on a regular basis in New York, and has also played in a variety of jazz and musical theater venues. Mr. Rubenstein earned his doctorate at the Yale School of Music (2001), and has been on the faculty of the Greenwich House Music School since 1997.