Your trusted source

Renowned Armenian violinist Nikolay Madoyan has set up a new Guinness World Record, dedicating his victory to the 2016 April war heroes.

With an uninterrupted performance lasting 33 hours, 2 minutes and 41 seconds (with breaks for 5 minutes every hour) at Komitas Chamber Music Hall on 11-12 February, the violinist carved his way into Guinness Book of Records.

“I selected 59 works, including the “Apricot Three” and “Keler Tsoler” (Striding, Beaming) by Komitas and “Nocturne” by Eduard Bagdasarian,” Nikolay Madoyan told a news conference on Wednesday, adding the Committee of the Guinness Book of Records confirmed his new record on 25 July.

“The letter sent by the Committee said they had greatly enjoyed my performance, which was very important for me, since I managed to provide the artistic elements despite the physical tension,” he said.

The violinist is due to hold concert tours in Italy in upcoming future.

Nikolay Madoyan (b. January 6, 1973 in Yerevan) is the laureate and winner of numerous international music competitions. He studied under Hracha Bogdanyan, Zakhar Bron, Isaac Stern and Solovieff.

Madoyan has performed with a number of the world's best symphony orchestras and conductors such as Richard Hickox, Frans Brüggen, Claudio Abbado, Arnold Katz, Dmitri Kitayenko, Valery Gergiev, Leopold Hager, Matthias Bamert, Richard Dufallo and Nikolai Alekseyev.

He has performed Beethoven's ten Sonatas for Violin and Piano (on 3 consecutive nights), Paganini's 24 Caprices (in one evening without interruption), Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (in one evening) and Six Sonatas for Violin and Cembalo (in one evening), Eugène Ysaÿe's Six Sonatas (in one evening) to name a few. Nikolay played all compositions by memory.

Madoyan has performed at the Tivoli Hall, Concertgebouw, Royal Festival Hall, Milan Verdi Theatre and the Big Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

His discography contains more than 20 CDs.