- Piano
Born in Beirut, Lebanon to a family of Armenian descent, Kouyoumdjian started playing the piano at the age of 4 and began his studies at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna when he was 12 years old. At the mdw, he studied with D. Weber, N. Flores, A. Jenner and G. Ebert, following which he engaged in postgraduate study with D. Iliev, St. Neuhaus and A. Kezeradze.
Kouyoumdjian’s career as a performer, professor, director, and administrator is marked by a long list of music-realted accomplishments since he won first prize at the Sixth International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 1981.
The years since then have seen him perform in renowned concert halls in Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. He has also soloed with well-known orchestras around the world and taken part in many different festivals. He is a much-sought-after juror for major international competitions, he conducts master classes at numerous universities in Europe and Japan, and his recordings serve well to demonstrate his artistry as a pianist and a chamber musician. In 1997, he was appointed professor of piano and chamber music at the keyboard department of the mdw, where he had already begun his pedagogical career as an assistant professor in 1987. Likewise at the mdw, he initiated and founded the mdw's International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition, cofounded and served as director of the mdw's Joseph Haydn Department of Chamber Music in 2002 (since 2010: deputy director), and became Dean of Studies in 2010. Since the summer of 2004, Kouyomdjian has served as artistic director of the “Piano à St-Ursanne” festival in Switzerland.
He teaches at the Académie musicale de Villecroze in 2013 and 2016.