Arie Dakesian

Tillett Debut Artists 2024

Arie Dakesian is a classical guitarist currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Performance at the Royal College of Music, under the tutelage of professors Gary Ryan and Christopher Stell. He’s a Houston Family Scholar and is supported by the highly sought-after Julian Bream Trust, as well as several Armenian scholarship funds including the Ouzounian Trust and AGBU Scholarships. Arie is also a grant holder of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the International Guitar Foundation, the Kathleen Trust, the Wolfson Foundation, and the St. Marylebone Educational Trust. As a 2024 Debut Artist for the Tillett Trust, Arie has been selected for a two-year collaboration and a wide range of performances; this made him the fifth guitarist to ever be awarded since the scheme emerged in 1995.

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 St James’s Piccadilly, Royal Albert Hall, and Wigmore Hall with a Kings Place debut on the 6th of November, 2025.