Skopje, 28 July 2025 (MIA) -- Germany-based Macedonian violinist Emir Imerov and Israel-based Armenian pianist Vag Papian will give a concert at St. Sophia church at 9 pm as part of Ohrid Summer festival.

The concert program features Ludwig van Beethoven's “Kreutzer” Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 alongside pieces by Јohannes Brahms and Franz Schubert.

Emir Imerov (b. 1975, Skopje) won first prize in a violin competition at the age of 12. In 1991, he moved to Mönchengladbach, Germany, and continued his studies, first at the local music school, and later under Grigori Zhislin at the Würzburg University of Music. After graduating in 2000, Imerov took master classes with Daniel Gaede, Zakhar Bron and Victor Tretjakov.

While still a student, Imerov won first prize in the Mendelssohn Competition of the Bavarian Music Academies in 1996 and received a two-year scholarship. As a member of the St. Petersburg Virtuoso Quartet, he toured the USA, Australia, the USSR, Switzerland and Germany. In 1998, he won first prize in a chamber music competition in Toulouse with a piano trio he founded, and second prize in a violin competition in Tashkent.

Since 2004, Imerov has been principal second violinist of the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker and a violin teacher at the Mönchengladbach Music School. He is a regular guest lecturer at master classes in Greece, Germany, Belgium and Croatia. Together with Vag Papian and Alexander Kaganovsky, he is a member of the Benjamin Piano Trio. He also performs with the Solistes Européens Luxembourg orchestra.

Vag Papian (b. 1956, Yerevan) studied the piano with Villy Sargsyan at the Yerevan Tchaikovsky School of Music and Mikhail Voskresensky at the Moscow Conservatory. He started his career as a pianist after winning the second prize at the 1979 Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in Lisbon. He studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

In 1987, he became principal conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. Since immigrating to Israel in 1990, he has held positions with the Beer Sheva and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestras and performed with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Kazakhstan and the Ashdod Israeli Andalusian Symphony Orchestra. In addition to conducting major orchestras, he has collaborated with Maxim Vengerov on recordings for EMI Classic.

Papian has toured over 50 countries, including the UK, USA, Russia, Slovakia, Japan, Korea, China and India. He has given master classes in Italy, Spain and the US. His opera productions include "Carmen," "Don Giovanni" and "Norma." He is currently a guest conductor at the National Opera Theatre of Armenia, a professor at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv and a member of the Benjamin Piano Trio. mr/