Biography
A concert organist whose recitals, masterclasses, and lectures have taken him to churches, concert halls, and campuses across the United States and internationally.
Aram Basmadjian is a concert organist whose performances have won acclaim from audiences and critics alike. With a repertoire that extends well beyond the traditional organ canon, his programs make the “King of Instruments” at once virtuosic and approachable.
He is currently the President of Allen Organ Company, the world’s largest builder of church organs, and continues to accept special engagements as a performer and clinician as his demanding schedule permits.
Aram began piano studies in West Chester, Pennsylvania, at the age of seven with Marguerite Pond, making his first solo appearance six months later. He was a scholarship student at the Wilmington Music School in Wilmington, Delaware, where he studied piano with Benjamin Whitten and began organ studies under Ray Urwin. In 1983 he made his debut with the world-acclaimed Philadelphia Orchestra, and he continued piano study with Findlay Cockrell at the State University of New York.
After relocating to Salt Lake City, Aram studied organ with M. Lee Suitor at the University of Utah, and in 1986 he made his organ debut with a full-length recital at Temple Square, followed by two performances with the Utah Symphony in 1988. He was then awarded a scholarship to Utah State University to study organ under James Drake. Seeking a broader approach to the instrument, he coached repertoire with Ted Alan Worth, protégé of the legendary Virgil Fox, who encouraged him to pursue a concert career.
Aram recorded his first compact disc in 1990 on the four-manual Allen organ at the First Baptist Church of Pomona, California; selections from it have been featured many times on Pipedreams, the organ program of American Public Media. In 1995 the Allen Organ Company released a recording featuring Aram on his four-manual Allen touring organ. In 2006 he completed recording sessions on the five-manual, 80-rank Wurlitzer theatre organ installed at the Sanfilippo residence in Barrington, Illinois — the first classical recording made on the world’s largest Wurlitzer pipe organ.
For six years Aram toured with Community Concerts, performing in more than fifty cities a year. To play in venues without a suitable concert organ, he traveled with a large four-manual Allen touring organ, hauling the console, electronics rack, and more than twenty-five speaker cabinets in a full-length tractor-trailer that he drove himself.
Before returning to the organ industry, Aram was a captain for SkyWest Airlines, flying the Canadair Regional Jet from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and today continues his work in aviation as an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner.