Pianist Alexander Mndoyants has Died, Aged 75

A past laureate of the Van Cliburn Competition, Mndoyants taught many prominent students at the Moscow State Conservatory

The Armenian-Russian pianist Alexander Mndoyants, who was a dedicated and influential piano pedagogue, has passed away at the age of 75.

Born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1949, Mndoyants first studied the piano at the Tchaikovsky Central Special Music School at the Yerevan State Conservatory, and then the Central Music School of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, where his teachers included Elena Hoven and Bella Davidovich.

Upon his graduation from the Moscow State Conservatory in 1973, Mndoyants was engaged by the school as an accompanist, and remained there for three years. In 1977, he was a laureate of the Van Cliburn Competition.

The majority of Mndoyants' teaching career was spent at the the Moscow State Conservatory, where he was first appointed as a lecturer in 1988. He eventually rose to a professorship in 2004. More than one hundred of his students have been laureates of national and international competitions.

His son, Nikita Mndoyants (also a highly capable pianist) won the 2016 edition of the Cleveland International Piano Competition.

The noted Russian pianist Yakov Flier described Mndoyants as an "exceptionally gifted pianist and musician. His performing draws with real depth, seriousness and great mastery with piano. Nothing is frivolous and artificial. Mndoyants perfectly perfroms major monumental works as well as piano miniatures. And [he has] one more quality: his high intelligence and impeccable taste."