Yerevan Arno Babajanyan State Musical-Pedagogical College, established on 1st October 1967, is one of the leading establishments of the Republic of Armenian in the sphere of middle professional musical education. From 1986 the College is named after Arno Babajanyan - one of the shining representatives of Armenian composers of the 20th century. Within 55 years, it has given professional education to over 6000 young individuals.
On its 50th anniversary, the College was awarded with the "Gold Medal" - the highest award of the RA Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport.
Some of the best graduates are contemporary distinguished promoters, RA People's and Honored artists, laureates of international and republican competitions, Honored art workers and award winners. World famous opera stars Gegham Grigoryan, Emma Papikyan, pianists Ashot Khachatryan, Julieta Vardanyan, violinists Anna Haurutyunyan, Lusine Aghababyan, composers Ashot Babayan, Stepan Babatorosyan, conductor Ruben Asatryan as well as pop singers Inga and Anush Arshakyans, duduk players Kamo Seyranyan, Mkrtich Karapetyan, folk singers Papin Poghosyan, Susanna Safaryan, Manik Grigoryan etc.
Students of Babajanyan college continue to participate and win prizes at different republican and international festivals and competitions, perform at the best concert halls of the city, and participate in charitable concerts.
Today there are various musical ensembles in the College: chamber orchestra, brass band, orchestra of folk instruments and student chorus.
From 1996 RA Ministry of Education and Science and Yerevan Arno Babajanyan State Musical-Pedagogical College have organized “Arno Babajanyan Republican Competition of Young Pianists” for six times.
From 2011 the same organizers implement “Arno Babajanyan International Competition-Festival for Junior and Young Pianists” for six times.
Three of the laureates - Arus Adjemian, Lilit Grigoryan and Zhora Sargsyan are the winners of the RA President Youth Prize, most of the laureates have won many international awards and are very active in performing in various concerts: Martin Shahbazyan, Andrey Kurbet, Sandro Gegechkori and others.
The Honorary president of six republican and the 1st International competition-festival was People’s Artist of USSR, composer Edvard Mirzoyan.
The judges consisted of famous musicians from Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Israel, Georgia and Armenia.
More than 600 junior and young pianists from 12 countries - Armenia, Artsakh, Russia, France, Germany, Australia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Syria, the USA and China participated in six international competition-festivals.
In 2021 it was the 100th anniversary of the USSR and Armenian SSR People's Artist, Honored art worker of the Armenian SSR, composer Arno Babajanyan. So Babajanyan College dedicated all the events-concerts, conferеncеs, competitions of 2021 to the anniversary of the composer. The culmination of the jubilee events was the VI Arno Babajanyan International Competition-Festival for Junior and Young Pianists.
This year, from June 24 to July 1, Arno Babajanyan VII International Competition-Festival for Junior and Young Pianists will be held in Yerevan, which is expanding its borders and will be held in internal and online formats.