Arie Dakesian is a classical guitarist currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music, studying with Gary Ryan, Christopher Stell, and Carlos Bonell. He is a Houston Family Scholar, a recipient of the prestigious Julian Bream Trust Award, and is currently supported by the Ouzounian Trust and the Wayne Sleep Foundation. He has previously been an award holder of the Royal Philharmonic Society, International Guitar Foundation, Wolfson Foundation, Benlian Trust, St Marylebone Educational Trust, AGBU Scholarships, AMAA Scholarships, and the Kathleen Trust.
In 2024, Arie was named a Tillett Debut Artist, making him only the fifth guitarist to receive this honour since the scheme’s inception in 1995. The award grants a two-year collaboration and a broad platform for performances across the UK.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, to an Armenian family, Arie has since been exposed to a wide variety of music from an early age, which is woven into the very fabric of his music-making. Recent engagements feature performances in Kew Gardens, St James’s Piccadilly, Royal Albert Hall, Coutts, Kings Place, and Wigmore Hall.
REINCARNYL PROJECT
A reinvention of what’s long gone in a stylish and refreshing charm. As a classical guitarist as well as a composer/arranger, Arie has come to realise two things:
“There is almost no Armenian music in the classical guitar repertoire. While Armenia is rich in its musical masterworks, none of the greats have written anything for our humble instrument. Considering the beautiful music we have, I have arranged and transcribed music ranging from folk music (Apricot Tree by Komitas) to piano works (Melody and Humoresque by A. Babadjanian), to popular songs (Viens pleurer au creux de mon epaule by C. Aznavour) for solo guitar. I’m now also in the process of arranging the well-known 14 Armenian Folk Miniatures by Sergei Aslamazyan, which is my centrepiece creative project at present. Originally written for a string quartet, this is being arranged for the ArNor Duo: a violin and guitar duo I co-founded with Polina Sharafyan in 2025. I’ve arranged two of them already, and I am currently in search of sponsors to commission the rest.”
“I also realised that classical musicians, having always written their own music in the past, have now stopped this creative tradition, and there is a creative aspect that is missing in today’s music scene. I’ve made myself a promise to always include at least one original composition in each concert I play. ”
As a Debut Artist for the Tillett Trust, Arie has been given over a dozen concerts all over the UK: an opportunity very few musicians get, let alone guitarists, but for him, becoming the fifth guitarist to be selected since the scheme’s inception in 1995 came with a responsibility. He’s very happy to say that his arrangements of Babadjanian, Aznavour, and Komitas have been heard at the Royal Albert Hall, Kings Place, St James’s Piccadilly, Leighton House, as well as many stages across the country. It was also very humbling to play his original composition, Mediterrations, at his Kings Place debut in November 2025.
Arie shares that it gives him great pleasure to have the opportunity to share his music extensively with the UK audience, and with that come great gifts of sharing his music with them, be that music of his people through his arrangements, or his own compositions. That is Arie’s mission at present. For people to come and tell him they had never heard Armenian music before and had fallen in love with it is such a treat.
He plans on collecting these and releasing them in a complete album, titled REINCARNYL, with the 14 Armenian Folk Miniatures being the centrepiece. This will also give him a chance to group his creative work of the past five years, which runs parallel to his busy performance schedule, as well as publish all this music in each classification in order to make it accessible for other guitarists and add to the arsenal of Armenian music for the guitar. Arie plans on showcasing a bit of both the solo guitar and guitar/violin repertoire in the showcase.