Vahagn Stepanyan
InterContinental Music Awards Judge
Keyboardist, Arranger, Songwriter, Sound Designer, Film Composer, GRAMMY Voting member
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Vahagn’s musical journey started at the early age of eight when he was enrolled into a music school for classical piano lessons. Vahagn’s quest carried him from Yerevan Tchaikovsky High School, a special school for music, on to Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory where he earned a bachelor’s degree in classical 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 is also a Grammy® Voting Member since 2015.
Throughout the years Vahagn has collaborated with a host of artists from over 30 countries through studio work, tours and writing including Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” Bassist Nathan East, Eric Marienthal, Wouter Kellerman, Macy Kate (Youtube star), Danielle Withers (Justin Timberlake, Ariana Grande, Doja Cat), Eric Moore (Drummer of Eros Ramazzotti), Henrik Linder (Dirty Loops Bassist), Melvin Lee Davis (Music Director of Chaka Khan), Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy), Cheryl Porter (Singer, Vocal Coach), Richie Gajate Garcia (Sting), Ida Nielsen (Prince), Percy Bady (Toni Braxton), Feodor Dosumov, Nahuel Bronzini (Fantastic Negrito), Ricky Kej and many other incredible artists and engineers.
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, Electric 200 Piano and CR8. Today these plugins are the first choice for many Grammy-winning mixing engineers, music producers, musicians and sound designers.
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 (Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga).