Merited Artist of Armenia Nikolay Madoyan stands among the most remarkable violinists of his generation, admired for his depth of interpretation, flawless technique, and commanding stage presence.
Throughout his career, he has collaborated with leading orchestras such as the Concertgebouw Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Tokyo NHK Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, English Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Symphonic Orchestras, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, and others. He has performed under conductors including Kurt Masur, Claudio Abbado, Richard Hickox, Valery Gergiev, Leopold Hager, Helmut Müller-Brühl, Arnold Katz, János Fürst, Frans Brüggen, Dmitri Kitayenko, Richard Dufallo, Kees Bakels, Nikolai Alekseyev, Vasily Sinaisky, Erich Vechter, and George A. Albrecht.
In recent seasons, Madoyan has continued to engage audiences with recitals, including two at West Road Concert Hall in England. His work with conductors Ernesto Colombo, Gianluca Marciano, Pavel Petrenko, Sergei Stadler, and Juan A. Ramirez produced programs of wide scope. He has often appeared as a guest soloist with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. His Germany tour with Philipp Amelung and the NCOA received a strong public and critical response, while his Italian tour with the Senocrito Festival Orchestra under Gianluca Marciano featured performances of works by Paganini and Vivaldi.
In 2025, Madoyan undertook a European tour performing all 24 of Paganini’s Caprices in a single recital, using Paganini’s original bowings. The tour brought him to major venues, including the Berlin Philharmonic and Milan’s Sala Verdi, where he received standing ovations and high critical praise. The Strad, in its review, described the achievement with the headline: “Violinist Nikolay Madoyan: Redefining Boundaries.”
In 2017, Madoyan earned a Guinness World Record “Officially Amazing” designation for his 33-hour performance of classical works, made possible by his innovative muscle-balancing technique. Among his other artistic achievements is his performance of all six Paganini Violin Concertos from memory in a single concert — the first and only violinist ever to accomplish this feat.
Madoyan’s discography highlights his broad artistic range, and his albums have received strong critical praise from BBC Music Magazine, Pizzicato, American Record Guide, Gramophone, and The Strad.
A laureate of numerous international competitions, Madoyan is the Grand Prize winner of the International Kullenkampff Competition in Germany, First Prize winner of the All-Union Music Competition (former USSR), and a laureate of the Lipinski and Wieniawski International Competition, where he also received both the Spectators’ and Journalists’ Special Prizes. Being the laureate of the Tokyo International Competition, he additionally received a Special Prize for the best performance of a Japanese work.
Madoyan holds two doctoral degrees in Violin Performance and performs on an early-18th-century Guarneri violin.
Among Prof. Nikolay Madoyan’s extraordinary students are several outstanding young violinists who have already gained significant international recognition.
- His student Piotr Stadnicki has achieved major success on the international stage and was awarded in 2025 both the “Carl Nielsen og Anne Marie Nielsens Legat” Talent Prize and the “Jacob Gade’s Legat – Store Pris”, two of Denmark’s most prestigious honours, reserved for the country’s most exceptional young artistic talents. Piotr has also won Gold and First Prizes in numerous international violin competitions, including the Canadian International Music Competition, the Sergei Azizian Competition, and the American International Music Competition (Cleveland), as well as a Second Prize at the International Violin Competition in honour of Karol Lipiński and Henryk Wieniawski in Poland.
- Lusine Sarkisyan, a remarkable student who has been blind since early childhood, is a Gold Medal and First Prize winner of the Sankt-Petersburg International Violin Competition “Enchanted Spectacle” and has been invited to participate in festivals in Prague and other European and Asian cities.
- Another distinguished student, Filip Stadnicki, won Gold Prizes at the Euterpe Music Awards and the European Virtuoso Music Awards, as well as First Prizes at the Medici International Music Competition and the Berlin International Music Competition, among many others. Filip was invited to perform at the prestigious Copenhagen Summer Festival, as part of the “Young Talents of the Year” concert.
