Slava Grigoryan
Guitar, Australia
Slava Grigoryan was born in Kazakhstan and emigrated with his family to Australia in 1981. He began studying guitar with his violinist father Edward at the age of 6. Aged 18, his first tour was with guitar legends Paco Pena and Leo Kottke. He has since travelled the world as recitalist and soloist with orchestras, including London Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Halle, Dresden Radio Orchestra, Israel Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and all the Australian orchestras.
His relationship with Sony Classical, ABC Classics in Australia, ECM in Germany and his own label Which Way Music has led to the release of over 30 solo and collaborative albums spanning a vast range of musical genres. In Australia, he has won four ARIA awards for Best Classical Album.
Collaborations have been pivotal in Slava’s career, most notably the guitar duo with his younger brother, Leonard. Other collaborators have included Goldner, Flinders, Australian, Endellion, Skampa and Chilingirian String Quartets, Southern Cross Soloists, pianist Michael Kieran Harvey and baritone José Carbó. Slava is a founding member of Saffire, the Australian guitar quartet, and he has a duo with his wife and eminent cellist Sharon Grigoryan.
He has premiered many new works written especially for him, working particularly with composers William Lovelady, Nigel Westlake and Shaun Rigney. Since 2010 he has been Artistic Director of the Adelaide Guitar Festival.
Outside the classical world, Slava enjoys MGT, a guitar trio with jazz icons, Muthspiel and Towner and a duo with Austrian electric bassist Al Slavik. With Joseph and James Tawadros and his brother Leonard, he has formed Band of Brothers performing a fusion of contemporary jazz, classical and Middle-Eastern music.