NEW YORK, NY - On December 16, 2000, Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Strasser, will hold its winter concert. Last February, the honor of performing as a soloist at this concert was won by 17-year-old Sarpouhi Pantikian with her performance of the Paganini Concerto #2. The program will include the beautiful Concerto in E minor by Julius Conus (1869-1942). This virtuoso work was composed in 1896 in Russia and is notable for its inexhaustible fund of melody, passionately rhapsodic violin writing and its fireworks. It is to Jascha Heifetz's credit that, by performing and recording the work, he brought it to international attention.

Born in Bulgaria of Armenian heritage, young Sarpouhi showed talent and promise early on and began her violin training at the age of six. She gave her first solo recital when she was twelve. Over the years, she has been awarded many prizes, including a diploma from the International Kozian Competition in Czechoslovakia in 1992. In 1995 she was the winner of the "Competition for Young Musicians" in Bulgaria. In 1999 she was one of the winners of the "Grammy in Our School" instrumental competition with the Bayside High School Trio. The same year, the Trio also won the "Chamber Music Competition" at Lincoln Center and, as winners, performed in the "Young Musician's Exposition" at Alice Tully Hall.

Sarpouhi has been a soloist with several Bulgarian orchestras and, as the Erevan weekly in Sofia cited, she gave a "high-class performance, for which professionalism and talent are essential." She has also performed throughout Eastern Europe, Canada and the U.S. Her experiences in the United States (she immigrated with her parents in 1997) include immersing in the Armenian cultural life of New York Sarpouhi performed at Cultural Nights in Holy Cross and Holy Martyrs Armenian churches. She participated at the One World Festival (1999, 2000) organized by St Vartan Cathedral. She is also the second violin of the newly formed Armenian String Quartet, which made its debut October 29 at a concert dedicated to Gomidas. Sarpouhi is now a senior in the Pre-College Division of the Manhattan School of Music. She is student of Albert Markov, who studied composition under Aram Khatchaturian.

The concert will be held on Saturday, December 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Manhattan School of Music's Borden Auditorium, Broadway and 122 Street (near Columbia University). Admission is free.