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BIO

VAHAGN
STEPANYAN

Award-Winning Music Producer, Arranger, Songwriter, Film/TV Composer, and Keyboardist, Vahagn Stepanyan has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the music industry. His latest album, “A New Chapter,” recently reached #5 on the Billboard charts.

After graduating from conservatory, Vahagn delved into composing, arranging, recording, producing, and film scoring. His early musical experiences provided him with the necessary expertise to compose music and write songs for renowned artists.Vahagn’s musical talent has garnered recognition from Grammy Award-winning artists and acclaimed musicians worldwide.

Vahagn Stepanyan serves as one of the judges for the ‘Intercontinental Music Awards’ and ‘Foley The World’ Sound Design Contest. Since 2015, he has been an active GRAMMY® Voting Member and was recently selected as a Grammy® U mentor by the Recording Academy.

In 2023, the album “An Adoption Story” by Kitt Wakeley featuring Starr Parodi & The London Symphony won a GRAMMY® in the Best Classical Compendium Category. Vahagn is credited as the featured keyboardist and additional engineer on this award-winning album.

Throughout the years, Vahagn has collaborated with a diverse array of artists from over 30 countries, engaging in studio work, tours, and songwriting. Vahagn’s credits include Platinum-selling artist Dave Koz, Eric Moore (Drummer of Eros Ramazzotti), Greg Howe, Nathan East, Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy), Eric Marienthal, Philip Lassiter (Prince), Danielle Withers (Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, Doja Cat), Ida Nielsen (Prince), Melvin Lee Davis (Music Director of Chaka Khan), Cheryl Porter (Singer, Vocal Coach), Aaron Lindsey, Chris Payton (Beyoncé), Henrik Linder (Dirty Loops), Percy Bady (Toni Braxton), Ricky Kej, Wouter Kellerman, Nahuel Bronzini (Fantastic Negrito), and many other notable artists and engineers.

Vahagn has collaborated with world-class engineers such as Evren Göknar (Capitol Studios), Lu Diaz (DJ Khaled, Pitbull), Luke Pimentel (Warner Bros.), and Randy Merrill from Sterling Sound (Adele, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande).

Stepanyan has garnered over 35 International Awards, including recognition from prestigious platforms such as the Hollywood Independent Music Awards, Vegas Movie Awards, Global Music Awards, The USA Songwriting Competition, UK Songwriting Contest, and the Cannes World Film Festival in France, where he clinched the “Best Soundtrack” category. Notably, “Synergy,” featuring Dave Koz, secured the gold award for Best Jazz Single at the “One Earth Awards” during Season 11. In August 2023, Stepanyan’s soundtrack “The Hope of Victory” received an “Honorable Mention Award” from the Oniros Film Awards® – New York. Additionally, the soundtrack “No More Sorrow” once again earned an “Honorable Mention Award” from the New York International Film Awards™ – NYIFA. In 2023 Vahagn was also nominated for “Musician of the Year” by the Josie Music Awards.

Stepanyan’s latest album, “A New Chapter,” has achieved remarkable success, reaching #5 on the Billboard “Contemporary Jazz Albums,” #19 on “Jazz Albums,” and #97 on the “Top Current Album Sales” charts. This milestone signifies a historic moment in Armenian music, as an indie artist from Armenia secures a spot on the Billboard charts for the first time. Additionally, Stepanyan is officially endorsed by over 50 companies, including Nord Keyboards, MOOG, Audeze, Austrian Audio, Antelope Audio, Godox, Kali Audio, Native Instruments, ROLI, Zoom, Waves Audio, 64Audio and many others.

Currently, Vahagn resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Karine and their two children.

Career Highlights

Grammy Nominated artist Carolyn Malachi’s Beautiful Dreamer was featured on FOX 5 DC Morning News where Vahagn was featured on piano.

Featured on Mathew Shell’s album titled “Freedom”, which was launched by the Recording Academy via a Worldwide Exclusive First Listen at GRAMMY.com. The album was also featured as one of Generation Bass’ Top Albums for 2012.

Produced The Ethnos Project Volume One, the first of a collection of multiethnic/multicultural music recordings that capture more of a world beat & global music vibe. Volume One includes nine languages: English, Tagalog, Mandarin, Swahili, Farsi, Japanese, Spanish, Korean and Estonian. The Ethnos Project was recorded in four different countries (Armenia, Venezuela, Estonia and USA). In 2014 it was also featured and reviewed in Worship Leader Magazine, a prominent American publication.

Vahagn self-produced his debut album "Moonlight". It infuses the musical styles of Smooth Jazz, R&B and Funk with the talents of artists from USA, Brazil, Armenia, Thailand, Israel, Turkey and Germany. "Moonlight" mixed by one of the greatest mixing engineers Alen Konakoğlu. Grammy-Winning mastering engineer Evren Göknar at Capitol Studios (Hollywood, CA) mastered "Moonlight", making this recording a top global music project indeed. In 2015 “Moonlight” was submitted to The Recording Academy in consideration for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in the Contemporary
Instrumental Album category.

At the end of 2015 Vahagn produced The Ethnos Project Volume Two which includes fourteen different languages (English, Zulu, Portuguese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Spanish, Japanese, Shona, Xhosa, Tsonga, Chinese, Korean, German, Portuguese) and includes musicians from six different countries (Armenia, Turkey, USA, Brazil, Venezuela, Netherlands).

By the request of world-leading maker of audio plugins Waves Audio, Vahagn created presets for favorite plugins ‘Renaissance’ bundle including RVerb; REQ2; REQ4; REQ6, Clavinet and Electric 200 Piano. Vahagn also created some presets for IK Multimedia’s first physically modeled bass virtual instrument MODO Bass. Today these plugins are the first choice for many Grammy-winning mixing engineers, music producers, musicians and sound designers.

In 2017, Vahagn got an invitation from Waves Audio to do instrument’s demos and presentations at NAMM Show with the industry’s top producers, engineers and musicians including Andrew Scheps, Infected Mushrooms, Billy Bush, Butch Vig, Chris Lord-Alge, Dave Audé, Eddie Kramer, Greg Wells, Jack Joseph Puig, Lu Diaz, Manny Marroquin, Tony Maserati and Shaun Martin. At various NAMM shows Vahagn had a pleasure of doing presentations for Gruv Gear, Soundbrenner, 64 Audio, UVI, Nord and Waves Audio’s booths. Performed at NAMM Nissan Grand Plaza Stage for several times.

Vahagn produced The Ethnos Project Volume 3 where he collaborated with the global inspirational recording artist Eric Lige. This project went on to receive recognition at the triennial Urbana Student Conference attended by over ten thousand university students from nearly 100 nations.

Vahagn and his “Stepanyan Studios” featured in Arista Records/Sony Music singer Armaan Malik’s “Tootey Khaab” Music Video by T-Series which passed over 59 million views on YouTube.

Vahagn worked with Grammy, Dove, BMI Award-Winning singer, songwriter and producer Percy Bady by arranging keyboards on his “Whole World” song. Percy Bady co-wrote the mega hit song “I believe I can fly”. “Whole World” later released on “Hope Anthology” album which features songs composed from artists, such as: Grammy® Award-Winning recording artist Fred Hammond, 9-time Grammy Winner Mary J Blige, hip-hop artist Tia P. and others...

Vahagn elected as a judge of “Foley the World” sound design contest with Rafa Sardina, Ronnie van der Veer, Yaron Spiwak, Jason Akers and Sanaa Kelley.

Vahagn became one of the judges of Intercontinental Music Awards. In April 23, Vahagn featured on Billboard magazine, which is one of the most reputable sources of music industry news.

“An Adoption Story” album by Kitt Wakeley featuring Starr Parodi & The London Symphony won the GRAMMY’s in the Best Classical Compendium Category, where Vahagn had the pleasure doing the additional engineering and keyboards.

Vahagn Stepanyan won two Grand Awards by The Akademia Music Awards in the category of Jazz Song for Motion and Synergy tracks (February, March). In March, Motion track got nominated for Hollywood Independent Music Awards (HIMA) in Jazz (Fusion/Bebop) category.

“A New Chapter” has hit #5 on the Billboard “Contemporary Jazz Albums”, #19 on “Jazz Albums” and #97 from “Top Current Album Sales” charts! It’s the first time in the history of Armenia’s music that an Armenian indie artist is charting on the Billboard top charts!

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