BIO
VAHAGN
STEPANYAN
Award-winning Music Producer, Arranger, Songwriter, Film/TV Composer and Keyboardist, Vahagn Stepanyan has worked with some of the biggest names in the world of music.
Following his graduation from conservatory, Vahagn began composing, arranging and recording soundtracks for films. At an early age Vahagn’s musical passions and endeavors gave him the experience he needed to compose music and write songs for famous artists.
Vahagn’s musical giftedness has been recognized by Grammy Award-Winning artists and well-known musicians across the world.
Vahagn Stepanyan is one of the judges of ‘Intercontinental Music Awards’ and ‘Foley The World’ Sound Design Contest. He is an active GRAMMY Voting Member since 2015. Later in 2023 Vahagn got selected as GrammyU mentor by the Recording Academy.
In 2023, “An Adoption Story” album by Kitt Wakeley featuring Starr Parodi & The London Symphony won the GRAMMY’s in Best Classical Compendium Category, where Vahagn is credited as featured keyboardist and additional engineering.
Throughout the years Vahagn has collaborated with a host of artists from over 30 countries through studio work, tours and writing including Platinum-selling artist Dave Koz, Eric Moore (Drummer of Eros Ramazzotti), Greg Howe, Nathan East, Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy), Eric Marienthal (Grammy Award Winning Saxophonist), 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 (Grammy Award-Winning Producer), Henrik Linder (Dirty Loops Bassist), Percy Bady (Toni Braxton), Ricky Kej (Grammy Award Winner), Wouter Kellerman, (Grammy Award-Winning Flautist), Nahuel Bronzini (Fantastic Negrito) and many other incredible artists and engineers.
Vahagn is collaborating 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, recently won three Grand Awards from the Akademia Music Awards for Best Jazz Songs for “Synergy”, “Motion and Best Jazz album.” “Motion” also won a Global Music Awards silver medal and Hollywood Independent Music Awards in the Jazz (Fusion/Bebop) category. Vahagn Stepanyan recently nominated for “Musician of the Year” by Josie Music Awards which will be held on October 22, 2023 at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, TN.
“Synergy” featuring Dave Koz won the gold award for Best Jazz Single at the “One Earth Awards” during Season 11. In August 2023, Vahagn 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 and won “Best Soundtrack” Award at Cannes World Film Festival in France.
Vahagn Stepanyan’s latest “A New Chapter” album 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! Currently Vahagn is officially endorsed artist over 50 companies including Nord Keyboards, Audeze, Austrian Audio, Antelope Audio, Godox, Kali Audio, Native Instruments, ROLI, Zoom and many others…
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!
Vahagn resides in Los Angeles, California with his lovely wife Karine and two beautiful children.