A two-year-old girl stands before a bulky 90’s television with a toy violin in her hands, intensely studying and imitating world-renowned Israeli-American virtuoso Itzhak Perlman. It was this rare combination of sheer curiosity and natural abilities that initially led the young girl towards the intricate world of classical music. The toy violin gifted to her by her grandmother would soon be replaced with an authentic instrument.
At the tender age of seven, Ani Bukujian demonstrated her impeccable musical talents during her debut concert at Alex Theatre in Glendale, California, where she proved herself an already polished soloist performing with the Glendale Chamber Orchestra. In addition to being the youngest participant to play in the Viva Vivaldi All Girl Chamber Orchestra at age seven in Washington D.C. and performing solo repertoire at UCLA’s Performing Arts Center, she won three gold medals at the World Championship of Performing Arts in 2005. Reaching great heights in such a short period of time sparked interest among local news giants, including the LA Times and CNN News. These fundamental years of training served as the firm foundation she stood upon as she proceeded to study at the esteemed private performing arts conservatory Juilliard, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Violin Performance. |
Taking into consideration that you come from a musical family, what is the earliest memory you can recall of wanting to pick up a violin for the first time?
I was only 2 years old when I started playing the violin, and so I have no memory of how it all started. My father Sarkis Bukujian used to record life’s moments of me growing up and in one of these VHS tapes I was imitating famous violinists of that time such as Sarah Chang and Itzhak Perlman, with a toy violin my grandmother had gifted me. Who were your most prominent influences growing up? I was fortunate to be born into a musical family. My father played a crucial role in my musical education and he was my primary teacher until the age of 14. Thanks to him, I established a strong technical foundation and learned how to appreciate the important things in music and art in general. He introduced me to legendary violinists such as Jascha Heifetz, David Oistrach, Leonid Kogan, and many more. I grew up listening to their recordings and still do to this very day. As I grew older into my teenage years, I started discovering artists on my own and to my liking. One of the very fine violinists I still admire to this very day is Sergey Khachatryan of whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many times. |
What was it about performance that led you to gravitate towards the stage from a young age?
It is hard to answer the question because being a young musician one has no defined and conscious understanding of one’s feelings. Looking back though at those days from my current perspective, I dare say I really enjoyed discovering and sharing a part of myself while being on stage with the audience. Definitely my early successes in competitions and concerts helped me build confidence in myself as a performer. It is very important for a young child to feel that what he/she does is appreciated and admired by other people. |
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