UPCOMING CONCERTS!

🎵 Pegasus Benefit: Nicolas Namoradze in Recital

📅 Sunday, November 16, 2025 | 5:00 PM

📍 Penthouse of Jonathan DePeri (Flatiron, NY)

Presented with Gotham Arts, this elegant evening brings you up close to one of today’s most imaginative pianists, Nicolas Namoradze, in celebration of Ravel’s 150th. The program includes his solo transcription of Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, selections from Debussy’s Préludes, and a special two-piano performance of Ravel’s Concerto in G Major with Pegasus artistic director Karén Hakobyan.

Proceeds from the evening will support Pegasus’s 10th Anniversary Season, including our Young Artists Program and International Concerto Competition.

👉 Benefit Details & RSVP

Pegasus Season Opener — Ravel 150

📅 Friday, December 5, 2025 | 7:30 PM

📍 Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center

We are thrilled to open Pegasus’s 2025–26 season with Ravel 150 — a luminous tribute to Maurice Ravel on the 150th anniversary of his birth.

The program will feature two extraordinary soloists: pianist Nicolas Namoradze, performing Ravel’s brilliant Piano Concerto in G Major, and harpist Mariko Anraku, in Introduction and Allegro in a new arrangement by Pegasus’s founder, artistic director, and principal conductor Karén Hakobyan.

Alongside these works, we will also perform Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, Pavane pour une infante défunte, and Prokofiev’s witty Symphony No. 1, “Classical.”

We cannot wait to share this program with you — join us as we begin a new season of color, elegance, and imagination.

👉 Tickets now on sale: $35-$55*

*$30 senior and $20 student tickets are available.

Call the box office at 212 501 3330.

Nicolas Namoradze, piano

Mariko Anraku, harp

Karén Hakobyan, conductor

Pegasus: The Orchestra

“Nicolas Namoradze: ideally laconic and debonair, weighty yet exquisite, and exactingly precise in tone and touch.” — The Guardian

“Mariko Anraku: masterful artist of intelligence and wit.” — The New York Times

“Karén Hakobyan’s Brahms Fourth with Pegasus: The Orchestra is a shattering experience not to be missed.” — Fanfare Magazine

“Pegasus is a truly first-rate ensemble.” — New York Concert Review

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PEGASUS: THE ORCHESTRA BIO

Hailed by New York Concert Review as “a truly first-rate ensemble,” Pegasus: The Orchestra is a dynamic nonprofit professional orchestra based in New York. Founded in 2017 by conductor, pianist, and composer Karén Hakobyan, its mission is to empower rising musicians, promote innovative repertoire, and foster creativity in an inclusive environment.

Pegasus brings together musicians and audiences from diverse backgrounds, harnessing the power of music to build community. For its first four years, the orchestra was in residence at Mana Contemporary Cultural Center, presenting diverse performances—from chamber orchestra to jazz and solo recitals—often with an emphasis on education and outreach.

With a composer-arranger as founder, artistic director, and principal conductor, Pegasus frequently performs orchestral works in original arrangements by Hakobyan, written specifically for the ensemble’s flexible instrumentation.

Recent highlights include the orchestra’s Fifth Anniversary Season (2022–2023), which featured its Lincoln Center debut performing all five Rachmaninoff piano concertos in one evening to wide acclaim, and a sold-out Merkin Hall concert marking the 150th anniversaries of Scriabin and Rachmaninoff with pianist Nicolas Namoradze.

Pegasus’s 2024 Season Finale honored the 120th anniversary of Aram Khachaturian with a vibrant program of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Khachaturian, featuring cellist Sergey Antonov as soloist. New York Concert Review praised Hakobyan for leading Pegasus “with impressive energy and precision, eliciting clarity and vitality from the ensemble throughout the evening.”

The 2025 Season Finale featured pianist Asiya Korepanova in Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor. New York Classical Review lauded her “Rachmaninoff-like rubato and intensity” and praised Pegasus for its “commanding energy and a strong sense of ensemble” in Dvořák’s New World Symphony.

Pegasus opened its 2024–2025 season with Americana, a program reflecting on the American musical landscape in all its triumph and turbulence. Highlights included works by Florence Price, Piatigorsky, Copland, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in a bold new arrangement for 18 players, conducted from the piano by Hakobyan.

Pegasus’s 2019 Merkin Hall debut earned strong praise from New York Classical Review: “Hakobyan and his players punched out an incisive ritornello and snappy answers to the soloists, who played an exhilarating game of stretto tag.” Other highlights include a performance in Stamford, New York, showcasing American works and fulfilling Pegasus’s mission to bring world-class music to underserved communities.

Pegasus has been featured by media outlets such as Al Jazeera, Voice of America, Ardzagang Armenian TV, the Russian Television Network of America, The Voice of Armenians TV program, WGCH Talk Radio, WQXR New York Classical Radio, and Get Classical.

Upcoming Projects

Pegasus opens its 2025–2026 season with Ravel150: Hidden Gems & Masterworks on December 5, 2025, at Merkin Hall, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel. The program features pianist Nicolas Namoradze in Ravel’s effervescent Piano Concerto in G Major, alongside Le Tombeau de Couperin, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, and a new arrangement by Karén Hakobyan of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for solo harp and chamber orchestra.

Pegasus is also preparing for a Carnegie Hall debut during its milestone 10th Anniversary Season in 2026–2027.

Commitment and Sponsorship

Pegasus is dedicated to fostering artistic freedom, creating performance opportunities, promoting innovative repertoire, and advocating for music education, humanity, and equality. The orchestra maintains a piano sponsorship with Yamaha, which provides instruments for select performances, helping support its mission to inspire and unite communities through music.

“We as humans have always dreamt of defying gravity! Music does just that - it gives us wings.”

For inquires e-mail - Founder@pegasustheorchestra.org

PEGASUS: THE ORCHESTRA LINKS/PERFORMANCES (click below to watch)

Pegasus: The Orchestra Celebration of past 6 Seasons

Rachmaninoff - Tutti from Piano Concerto No. 1- Pegasus: The Orchestra (Alice Tully Hall)

Clara Schumann Piano Concerto (Asiya Korepanova, soloist)

Vivaldi Four Seasons "Summer" Presto (Eiko Kano, soloist)

SCHUMANN Overture Die Braut von Messina, Op. 100

Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 - III.

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (arranged by Karén Hakobyan especially for Pegasus)

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, 3rd movement

Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings, Op. 48