It’s a Sunday afternoon at Hamer Hall in Melbourne and guitarist Slava Grigoryan has just finished his first performance with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) in 16 years.
On stage to perform Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, Grigoryan was met with a rapturous applause.
“This is the most popular guitar concerto around – I’ve had a long history with this work and am excited about playing it with the ACO,” he says after the concert, in a dressing room deep in the bowels of the Arts Centre.
Grigoryan last played with the ACO in 2000 and has found that while most of the members are new, “the energy is still the same”.
The ACO are glad to have him back. The company’s artistic director, Richard Tognetti, told Guardian Australia: “I admire Slava’s humility and burning passion. And the beautiful rich sound he creates. He brings a sense of ease and warmth to the ACO.”
Now 40, Grigoryan seeks out musical collaborations where he can find them – and his face lights up when he talks about playing guitar with his younger brother, Leonard, who is nine years Slava’s junior, and who first picked up a guitar aged just four.
“Ninety per cent of the time we tour as a duo and record as a duo,” he says. “It’s weird not being on stage with him. … Until I started playing with my brother, I was playing on my own and I really don’t miss that. Musically, I wasn’t as inspired.”
Born in Kazakhstan and migrating to Australia with his parents when he was four, Slava Grigoryan was born into a musical family.
His parents, both professional violinists in the former Soviet Union, “had an orthodox Soviet Union musical education which was very rigorous”. But his parents also had another side: “My dad was a drummer for about 20 years and mum sung in bands. They both played in the philharmonic orchestra in Kazakhstan. The orchestra played four or five different programs a week, then they would go straight to the club playing music which wasn’t approved.”
Following some cousins who came to Australia in the 1970s, the Grigoryans moved to Melbourne.
“On the one hand, my parents had an ultra classical background; on the other hand, they listened to Hendrix and Miles Davis and everything in between.”
Grigoryan was taught by his father, who “had never played classical guitar but all of his approach came from what he knew of classical academia and of his own instrument”.
This meant that Grigoryan’s style was a little different until he was exposed to other musicians. Not that it held him back. His early years as a guitarist were marked by relentless touring and the support of Sony, who signed him when he was just 16.
After he finished high school, Grigoryan moved to the UK to tour. “I did another four albums for Sony when I was in the UK. It was the tail end of that era of major labels. There are still labels doing wonderful things with classical music but I came right at the end of a lot of activity – they were still investing a lot of money in classical music and taking risks. It wasn’t generic. It wasn’t about the bottom line, the amount of units that one would shift.”
So what was life like for an in-demand teenage classical guitar prodigy?
“I was touring with no rhyme or reason. I was living in the UK and would come back to Australia for a gig then fly to Europe for a gig then back to Australia to continue the tour. That stuff I don’t mind at all if it’s a shared experience.”
But instead it was monotonous. “I hated being on my own,” he says. “You travel, check in – and then you’re on stage. With other people at least there’s energy and excitement.”
In an industry where it is hard to make a living playing music full-time, Grigoryan is grateful that he can manage as a freelancer. “Most people end up teaching – either part-time or full-time,” he says.
Grigoryan is now based in Adelaide, where he lives with his partner, also a musician. The two plan to marry at the end of the year. He speaks enthusiastically about living there. Everything is close – including the airport – which for a touring musician is no small thing.
• Slava, Rodrigo, and Beethoven VII is touring nationally until 7 November. Slava Grigoryan’s new album Bach: Cello Suites Volume I is out on 4 November
