Sarkissjan, Ashot

Armenian-born violinist Ashot Sarkissjan has been present on the new music stage since 2002, when he joined the Ensemble intercontemporain. It was there that he enjoyed his first close collaborations with composers such as Pierre Boulez, György Kurtág, and Brian Ferneyhough. After moving to the Arditti Quarttet in 2005 he has been working with most major contemporary composers. His discography with the Arditti Quartet includes the complete string quartets of Helmut Lachenmann, Jonathan Harvey, Pascal Dusapin, Harrison Birtwistle, and Brian Ferneyhough. His solo appearances have included concertos by Kurt Weill (with Ensemble intercontemporain), György Ligeti (with the Stavanger Sinfoniorkester), and James Dillon (with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra). Recent and upcoming premieres include Steven Daverson's Giacometti's Razor for violin solo (2014), Philip Venables's Socialist Fucking Realism for violin and speaking choir (2013), Mark Barden's new duo for violin and cello (with Séverine Ballon, 2017), Andrzej Kwieciński's [super[P|PE­ (s)] for violin and orchestra (2017), and Liza Lim's The Su Song Star Map for violin solo (2018). His parallel interest in less academic music forms has led to his appearance on the album The Marriage of True Minds (2013) by Matmos.