Tigran Saakyan

Piano Instructor

 Tigran Saakyan was born into an Armenian family in Moscow, Russia. He began his piano studies at the Tchaikovsky Academic Music College at the Moscow State Conservatory and the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, studying with Professors Gayane Akhnazaryan, Natalia Trishkina, and Denis Burstein. He was actively involved in Moscow’s concert scene as both a soloist and collaborative pianist.

From 2010 to 2012, Tigran competed in several international piano competitions, winning First Prize and a Special Prize at the Città di Barletta competition in Italy, Second Prize at Renaissance in Armenia, and performing at Opus Yvelines in France.

In 2015, he moved to Canada to study with Professor Alexander Tselyakov at Brandon University, where he earned a Master of Music in Piano Performance, graduating with a gold medal. While at Brandon, Tigran collaborated with leading Manitoba musicians, including Catherine Wood, Kerry DuWors, and Leanne Zacharias. He won the MRMTA Piano Competition in 2016 and. As the winner of the 2017 Concerto Competition, Tigran performed Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with the Brandon University Orchestra. In 2016, he toured with Alexander Tselyakov across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and in 2017, appeared at the Brandon Clarinet Festival performing with Tory Okwabi (St. Cloud State University).

In 2018, Tigran joined the faculty at Music and Play Canada in Calgary, Alberta, as a full-time piano instructor. He has since performed in concerts across Alberta, British Columbia, Russia, Mexico, and the United States. In 2019, he appeared at the 15th Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival alongside some of Canada’s leading musicians. In 2021, he joined Calgary’s Mountain View Festival (Artistic Directors: Charles Foreman and Kathleen van Mourik), performing in the Isolation Point Project concert series. That same year, he was also named a finalist in the Vancouver International Music Competition.

In 2021, Tigran received a full scholarship to pursue his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. He is currently completing his DMA with Leslie Kinton and Brett Kingsbury.