Born in Sydney, Australia, of Armenian parents Ani Aznavoorian is representive of the finest of today’s generation of cellists. With only 12 hours notice, Ms. Aznavoorian stepped in to replace Natalie Gutman in three performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto no. 1 with the San Jose Symphony — critically acclaimed concerts that launched a career with appearances many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony, the International Sejong Soloists, the Indianapolis Philharmonic, the San Jose Symphony, the Juilliard Orchestra, Concertante di Chicago, and the Edmonton Symphony. She has also appeared as recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Italy, France, Finland, Yugoslavia, Japan, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and Canada. Ani’s commitment to music saw the recent Ani world premieres of Ezra Laderman’s 2nd Cello Concerto with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic under the baton of Lawrence Leighton Smith; and Lera Auerbach’s “24 Preludes for Cello and Piano” on stage at the Hamburg Staatsoper with the Hamburg State Ballet—choreographed by John Neumeier.

Ani has selected Lera Auerbach to write her concerto.

One of the most widely performed composers of the new generation, Lera Auerbach is the youngest composer on the roster of Hamburg’s prestigious international music publishing company Hans Sikorski, home to Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Gubaidulina and Kancheli. Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by a wide array of artists, orchestras, opera and ballet companies, including Gidon Kremer, the Kremerata Baltica, David Finckel, Wu Han, Vadim Gluzman, Tokyo String Quartet, Kuss String Quartet, Parker String Quartet, Petersen String Quartet, the SWR and NDR (Hannover) Symphony Orchestras, Düsseldorf Symphony, Royal Danish Ballet and Hamburg State Ballet and Vienna’s historic Theater and der Wien. Lera Auerbach’s music has also been commissioned and performed by leading festivals throughout the world including Verbier, Caramoor, Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein.

Born in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals bordering Siberia, Lera Auerbach became one of the last artists to defect from the Soviet Union during a concert tour in early 1991 while still in her teens. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied piano with Joseph Kalichstein and composition with Milton Babbit and Robert Beaser. IIn 2000 and 2004, Ms. Auerbach was invited by the International Johannes Brahms Foundation to live and work at the composer’s former home in Baden-Baden as the Artist-in-Residence. Auerbach’s acclaim is attributed not only to her musical activities but also to her writing. In 1996, she was named Poet of the Year by the International Pushkin Society. Her literary works include five volumes of poetry and prose and numerous contributions to Russian-language literary papers and magazines. Her poetry is taught in Russian schools and universities as required reading for modern literature courses.