Table of Contents KOMITAS VARDAPET
3
SAYAT - NOVA
5
ARAM KHACHATURIAN
7
ARNO BABAJANIAN
9
ALEXANDER ARUTIUNIAN
11
EDVARD MIRZOIAN
13
AVET TERTERIAN
15
ALEXANDER SPENDIARIAN
17
KONSTANTIN ORBELIAN
19
TIGRAN MANSURIAN
21
ROBERT AMIRKHANIAN
23
STEPHAN ELMAS
25
ASHOT ZOHRABIAN
27
ALAN HOVHANNES
29
GHAZAROS SARIAN
31
STEPAN SHAKARIAN
33
CHARLES AZNAVOUR
35
ABOUT
37
2
KOMITAS VARDAPET
Soghomon Gevorgi Soghomonyan commonly known as Komitas Vardapet or simply Komitas was born on September 26, 1869 in Anatolia, Turkey, in the town of Koutina. Komitas was an Armenian priest, composer, choir leader, singer, music ethnologist, music pedagogue and musicologist. Many regard him as the founder of modern Armenian classical music and the founder of Armenian national school of musical composition. He freed Armenian music from foreign influences and was the first to prove the Armenian nation have its own music. Being a profound expert of national music, Komitas created an original synthesis of Armenian monodic thinking and European polyphony that has endured to the present. He collected and wrote down thousands of folksongs, studied church and folk music considering them to be “siblings”.Komitas also made a research of Armenian khazes (symbols used in the old Armenian system of musical notation), and authored Patarag of the Armenian Church. Unfortunately, the prolific way of consciousness and creativity of the brilliant composer was short. Komitas shared the fate of his compatriots during the Genocide of 1915. 3
He was appallingly shocked by the tragic events, which subsequently fatally affected his mental condition and he had a psychotic breakdown after witnessing the horrors of 1915 Armenian Genocide and is considered a martyr of the Genocide.
4
SAYAT - NOVA
Sayat-Nova born as Harutyun Sayatyan (1712 or 1722 – 22 September 1795), was an Armenian poet, musician and ashik, who had compositions in a number of languages. Sayat-Nova's mother, Sara, was born in Tbilisi, and his father, Karapet, either in Aleppo or Adana. He was born in Tbilisi. His mother tongue was Georgian and he first wrote exclusively in Georgian, though he eventually learned Armenian. Sayat Nova was skilled in writing poetry, singing, and playing the kamancheh, Chonguri, Tambur. He performed in the court of Erekle II of Georgia, where he also worked as a diplomat and, apparently, helped forge an alliance between Georgia, Armenia and Shirvan against the Persian Empire. He lost his position at the royal court when he fell in love with the king's sister; he spent the rest of his life as an itinerant bard.In 1759 he was ordained as a priest in the Armenian Apostolic Church. His wife Marmar died in 1768, leaving behind four children. He served in locations including Tbilisi and Haghpat Monastery. In 1795 he was killed in Haghpat monastery by the invading army of Mohammad Khan Qajar, the Shah of Iran. He is buried at the Cathedral of Saint George, Tbilisi. In Armenia, Sayat Nova is 5
considered a great poet who made a considerable contribution to the Armenian poetry and music of his century. Although he lived his entire life in a deeply religious society, his works are mostly secular and full of romantic expressionism. About 220 songs have been attributed to SayatNova, although he may have written thousands more. He wrote his songs in Armenian, Georgian, Azerbaijani and Persian. His compositions assume the form of traditional Armenian songs.
6
ARAM KHACHATURIAN
Aram Khachaturian was a talented composer, whose compositions became part of the music classics of the 20-th century. His name is recognized throughout the world, and the compositions are performed worldwide, on the best theater stages, concert platforms, as well as the most distant places. Today, the music of Khachaturian is played on the radio, TV and cinema. The UNESCO places the name of Khachaturian among the most renowned composers of the 20-th century, and his “Sabre Dance” of the well-known ballet “Gayaneh” takes one of the first places in the list of the most popular compositions of our age. Aram Khachaturian was born in Kodzhori (now Tbilisi), suburb of Tiflis, on June 6, 1903, in the Armenian family of a bookbinder. He wrote later: “Old Tiflis is a city of sounds, a city of music. It took a stroll along the streets and lanes away from the center, to plunge into the musical atmosphere which was created by all the various sources…” It is also important, that at the time, there was a division of RMC (Russian Musical Society) in Tbilisi, as well as a musical school and an Italian Opera Theatre. This place was visited by famous cultural representatives, among which were: 7
Fyodor Shalyapin, Sergei Rakhmaninov, Konstantin Igumnov. Ultimately, there lived famous musicians, who played an important role in the formation of Georgian and Armenian composer schools. All of this constituted the basis for the early musical impressions of Aram Khachaturian. The original multi-national “alloy” of the intonation was an integral part of his acoustical experience. Years later, this very “alloy” became the pledge of Khachaturian’s music, so that it was never limited by the frames of nationality, and was always appealing to a wide-range of audiences. It is worth mentioning that Khachaturian was always devoid of any demonstration of national hidebound. He had a profound respect and a live interest in the music of various nations. Internationalism is one of the characteristic features and peculiarities of the world perception, and is part of the creative work of Khachaturian. Despite his early demonstrated musical abilities, Aram Khachaturian became acquainted with the music literacy for the first time at the age of 19 in 1922, when he arrived in Moscow and got enrolled in a cello class at Gnesin Music School. Simultaneously, the composer got a degree in biology from the Department of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow State University. The musical development of Khachaturian proceeded at a fast pace. Within a short period, not only did he catch up on his classwork, but he also became one of the best students, obtaining the right to perform at students’ concerts in the Small and Grand Halls of Moscow Conservatory.
8
ARNO BABAJANIAN
Arno Babajanian, January 22, 1921 – November 11, 1983, was an Armenian composer and pianist during the Soviet era.Babajanian was born in Yerevan, Armenia. By age 5, his extraordinary musical talent was clearly apparent, and the composer Aram Khachaturian suggested that the boy be given proper music training. Two years later, in 1928 at the age of 7, Babajanian entered the Yerevan State Musical Conservatory. In 1938, he continued his studies in Moscow with Vissarion Shebalin. He later returned to Yerevan, where from 1950–1956 he taught at the Yerevan State conservatory. It was during this period that he wrote the Piano Trio in f# sharp minor. It received immediate acclaim and was regarded as a masterpiece from the time of its premiere. Subsequently, he undertook concert tours throughout the Soviet Union and Europe. In 1971, he was named a People’s Artist of the Soviet Union. As a composer, Babajanian was active in most genres and even wrote many popular songs in collaboration with the leading poets such as Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Robert Rozhdestvensky among others. Much of Babajanian’s music is rooted in Armenian folk music and folklore. But 9
generally, the way in which he uses Armenian folk music is in the virtuosic style of Rachmaninov and Khachaturian. His later works were influenced by Prokofiev and Bartók. Praised by Dmitri Shostakovich as a "brilliant piano teacher", Babajanian was also a noted pianist and often performed his own works in concerts. He received the Stalin Prize of 1950 for his Heroic Ballade for piano with orchestra and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. He was People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (1956) and Soviet Union (1971). He was a laureate of two Stalin State Prizes of the USSR (1951, 1953) and two Armenian SSR State Prizes (1967, 1983).
10
ALEXANDER ARUTIUNIAN
Alexander Arutiunian has died at the age of 91 in Yerevan, the city of his birth. If Armenia does not immediately summon up a litany of recognisable Western composers, Arutiunian was, for 60 years, a distinctive and internationally recognised figure from the South Caucasus. Underpinned by the pedagogical traditions of the Soviet era and fuelled by the proud identity of Komitas as the spiritual father of Armenian classical music, Arutiunian’s evocative, resourceful and attractive musical language took flight. From his early cantata, Motherland, of 1948 (for which he won the Stalin Prize ahead of Shostakovich) to his final piece in 2011, a flute concerto, Arutiunian explored ways of harnessing intensity of emotion within established classical forms, flavoured variously with regional characteristics. Early works draw on indigenous improvisatory models whilst his opera SayatNova (1967) celebrates the Armenian troubadour (or ‘meistersinger’) in the time-honoured romantic ideal of vernacular minstrelsy. However his catalogue is largely focused on a repertoire of idiomatic instrumental works, most notably well-crafted concertos for all the members of the 11
brass family. If there is a single work which captivated audiences and critics alike it was the Violin Concerto, Armenia-88, inspired by the Spitak earthquake of that year, which killed 25,000 people at the height of the Soviet ‘stagnation era’. The concerto reveals Arutiunian at his most profound, personal and coherent. It was described by Joseph Horowitz as a work which ‘overflows with graceful melodic invention, rhythmic vitality, deeply felt emotional intensity and dionysiac exuberance’. Yet it is his Trumpet Concerto of 1950 which has established Arutiunian’s name as a durable figure. There is no conservatoire in the world in which this work does not feature perennially in syllabuses, competitions and concert programmes. It is arguably the best-known trumpet concerto after the Haydn and the Hummel. Like those two pioneering works, Arutiunian alights readily on the most naturally vocalised and lyrical qualities of the trumpet whilst also exploiting the instrument’s dynamic articulation in thrilling figuration and a dazzling culminating cadenza. Whilst it has been suggested that the work suffers from derivative and nostalgic Russian gestures (including a delightfully Polovtsian middle section), the rich melodic character, taut structure and generosity of spirit have ensured that it remains a central work in the armoury of every selfrespecting solo trumpet player. It was most famously recorded by Timofei Dokschitzer with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under Gennadi Rozhdestvensky but since then has been recorded by fine players from Maurice André to Alison Balsom.
12
EDVARD MIRZOIAN
Edvard Mirzoyan, May 12, 1921 – October 5, 2012, was an Armenian composer. Mirzoyan was born in Gori, Georgia. Initially schooled in music in Yerevan and graduated from the Komitas State Conservatory. Mirzoyan went to Moscow to further refine his art. In late 1956 he was elected president of the Armenian Composers’ Union, a position he held until 1991. He was a professor of composition at the Komitas State Conservatory and president of the Peace Foundation of Armenia. Edvard Mirzoyan’s compositional output is relatively small but quite distinguished, combining graceful lyricism with intense drama. With its formal structure and tonal design, his style has been described as Neoclassical, with elements of Armenian folksong always present. Mirzoyan’s String Quartet, Cello Sonata, Symphony for Strings and Timpani, and Epitaph for String Orchestra have become notable additions to the repertoire.
13
14
AVET TERTERIAN
Avet Terterian (also Alfred Roubenovich Terterian or Terteryan) (July 29, 1929 in Baku, Azerbaijan – December 11, 1994 in Yekaterinburg, Russia) was an Armenian composer, awarded the Konrad Adenauer Prize.[2] He was a friend and colleague of Giya Kancheli, Konstantin Orbelyan, and Tigran Mansuryan. Dmitri Shostakovich praised Terterian as "very talented" and "with great future" in one of his letters, published by his friend Isaak Glikman, having heard a recording of Terterian's works at Armenia's "House of Composers" summer resort, in Dilijan, Armenia. He composed eight (completed) symphonies, an opera and several chamber works. Several of his symphonies are recorded, as noted in one of the pages linked. (The date 1973 in the Musicweb review of the Melodiya recording of symphony 3 is probably a typographical error, since the publisher's listing also gives 1975 for the first performance of that work.) Yekaterinburg's annual music festival is named after him.
15
16
ALEXANDER SPENDIARIAN
Spendiaryan was born on November 1 (os October 20), 1871 in Kakhovka, province of Tavrik (modern Ukraine) in an Armenian family whose ancestry originated from Ani. His artistic abilities were formed in early childhood. He inherited his musical abilities from his mother who played piano. When Spendiaryan was seven he wrote a waltz. In 1890 he went to Moscow and studied for one year in the Natural Sciences faculty of Moscow University, and then in 1895 he graduated from the Law faculty. At the same time he continued his violin classes. In 1896 Spendiaryan went to St. Petersburg to show his compositions to Nikolai RimskyKorsakov, who greatly admired his music and encouraged him to turn deeper into his people's folklore. From 1896 to 1900 he took private composition lessons with Rimsky-Korsakov. According to Alexander Glazunov, "Rimsky-Korsakov was perfectly satisfied with the results of Spendiaryan's work and considered him a serious, talented composer with a great flair for composition". Spendiaryan was awarded the Glinka prize three times for his three works: the symphonic picture "Tree palms" in 1908, the legend "Preacher Beda" in 1910 and the melody declamation 17
"We’ll have a rest" in 1912. His symphonic pieces, songs and romances, choral works, and musico-declamatory pieces earned him high marks amongst audiences and professional musicians. Being a capable conductor, he was able to train the members of orchestras to play well during rehearsals. Spendiaryan led concerts in Kharkov, Odessa, Moscow, Petersburg, Doni-Rostov and New Nakhijevan. He spent much of his time in Yalta and Sudak. While he was living in Crimea, Spendiaryan met Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky and Fyodor Shalyapin. Alexander Glazunov was also a guest at his house. In 1910 Spendiaryan became a member of Yalta's Russian Musical Company. The symphonic poem "Three Palms" occupies a special place among Spendiaryan's symphonic compositions. With its poetic tone, its picturesque nature, and bright colouring, it resembles the oriental programme works of the Mighty Handful. Spendiaryan toured abroad performing this original piece in Berlin, Copenhagen, New York and elsewhere. Other works by Spendiaryan include "Concert Prelude", "Concert Waltz", and "Etude of Jewish Themes", Cantabile and Prelude for the string quartet, Baracarolle, Minuet, Scherzo, romances and vocal instrumental works. "Oh Rose" (Aye Vart) was a very famous classical piece in Russia and former USSR. In 1916 Spendiaryan performed in Tiflis where he met poet Hovhannes Tumanian and decided to write an opera based on "The Capture of Tmpkabert" poem. In 1916 the libretto of Almast opera was ready, and Spendiaryan began work on the opera, and finished the opera's vocal score in 1923. He continued his work on the instrumentation right up to his death. The instrumantation of the forth act of "Almast" was completed by M. O. Shteinburg.
18
KONSTANTIN ORBELIAN
A talented composer of classical music (symphony, ballet, chamber ensemble), jazz, and popular songs, Konstantin Orbelian is one of the brightest phenomena of Soviet and post-Soviet musical culture. He is the recipient of significant awards in the former Soviet Union, the Armenian Republic, and the international musical community. He has received the highest accolades from the three Soviet presidents: the award “For Services to Labor” from Khrushchev; the title “People’s Artist of the USSR” from Brezhnev, and, finally, the “Friendship of Peoples” prize from Gorbachev in 1989. Konstantin Orbelian has been acknowledged as a pianist and improviser since he was in his teens. At age fifteen, he was invited to perform with the Armenian State Pop Orchestra; and subsequently became its conductor. Under his able direction for thirtysix years, the Orchestra rose to become one of the most accomplished of its kind. As a result, it came to represent Soviet jazz in more than thirty countries in Eastern and Western Europe, the Near East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. One of the Orchestra’s highlights was its American tour in 1975, which included twenty-five concerts in major cities from coast to 19
coast.
Graduating in composition and piano from Edward Mirzoyan’s
class of composition at Yerevan’s Komitas Conservatory in 1963, Orbelian achieved early recognition for his String Quartet, winning the coveted First Prize at the International Competition in Moscow, where the chairman of the Competition’s panel of judges was the composer Dmitri Shostakovich. As a result, Orbelian’s rising talent and success were noted with great appreciation by the doyen of Armenian music of the time, Aram Khachaturian. Next followed the premiere of Orbelian’s First Symphony in Moscow’s famous Tchaikovsky Hall by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra. For this Symphony, Orbelian was awarded the title “Laureate of the All-Union Competition.” His subsequent Celebration Overture achieved the same acclaim. His ballet symphony “Immortality” was composed in 1975 and performed by the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater. This work, too, won First Prize in an All-Union Competition devoted to music for the stage. One of Orbelian’s more recent compositions in the classical idiom, an orchestral miniature with solo piano, was written in memory of George Gershwin, and was first performed by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Orbelian’s nephew, Constantine Orbelian. Ever versatile in the scope of his repertoire, Konstantin Orbelian has written musical scores for a number of films, including Krkesi Chanaparhin [On the Way to the Circus] and Sirte Yergum e [The Heart Sings]; music for the theater; pop songs; jazz; and scores for stage musicals. Several of these compositions have won prestigious prizes. The subject of two documentary films in Russian, Orbelian is currently vice-president of the International Association of the Union of Musicians in Moscow.
20
TIGRAN MANSURIAN
Tigran Mansurian, born 27 January 1939, is an Armenian composer of classical music and film scores. Born in Beirut, Mansurian moved with his family back to their ancestral Armenia in 1947, and studied at the Yerevan Conservatory of which he would eventually become the director. In the 1960s he was attracted by the ideas of the Western new music avant-garde but became increasingly convinced of the importance of the spirit of place and of composing in an authentically Armenian voice. “Our position on the map of music and culture,” he has written, “is exactly on the spot where East and West meet.” It is this special vantage point that fires his creative imagination. Tigran Mansurian remains fascinated by the relationship of Armenia’s sacred music to its folk songs, so powerfully brought together in the work of Komitas, an enduring influence. In 2000, Mansurian recorded his own arrangements of Komitas on Hayren, a disc that also included premiere recordings of his music for viola and percussion, played by Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky. This was followed by Monodia, the wide-ranging composer portrait album, recorded 2001-2002, with cast including Kim Kashkashian, 21
Leonidas Kavakos, Jan Garbarek, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Poppen. The album "Monodia" was nominated for the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)" and "Best Classical Contemporary Composition".
22
ROBERT AMIRKHANIAN
Robert Amirkhanyan, born on November 16, 1939 in Yerevan, is an Armenian composer and songwriter. Professor of Yerevan State Conservatory. In 1969 he graduated from the Composer department of Yerevan State Conservatory. From 1969 to 1972 Amirkhanyan was the musical editor of Armenian Radio. Since 1991 he is the head of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Armenia. He is an author of many popular Armenian songs ("Hayreni yerkir", "Hayi achker", "Ding-dong") and soundtracks of films and animation cartoons. Among the best known is the song "Arise!."
23
24
STEPHAN ELMAS
Stephan Elmas was an Armenian composer, pianist and teacher. Elmas was born into a family of wealthy entrepreneurs in Smyrna (now İzmir), a city in the Ottoman Empire. It was soon discovered that the little boy was a child prodigy: he began taking piano lessons and writing short piano pieces under the tutelage of a local music teacher, Mr. Moseer, and already at the age of thirteen, the young virtuoso performed an all-Liszt piano recital. Elmas composed rapidly and with great ease. Perhaps this explains why he sometimes did not revise his compositions sufficiently. However, many of his works are of high quality and perhaps he was most successful in composing his elegant and stylish salon pieces. These pieces seem to be composed for an earlier time: Elmas’s compositions tend to hearken back towards the style of earlier, Romantic composers, rather than forward to the challenging times that were shaping the musical world at the beginning of the new century. Established in 1988 under the artistic guidance of Alexandre Siranossian, the Stephan Elmas Foundation aims to disseminate the legacy of the Armenian composer. Recently, the composer’s works have been experiencing a revival, thanks 25
to the efforts of pianist Armen Babakhanian.
26
ASHOT ZOHRABIAN
Ashot Zohrabyan is an esteemed Armenian composer of mostly orchestral, chamber and vocal works that have been performed in Europe and elsewhere. Zohrabyan pursued his musical education at the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatory from 1967 to 1972, studying composition with Professor Grigori Yeghiazaryan. Following his graduation, he entered the faculty of the Conservatory, first as a teacher of music theory and instrumentation, and later as Professor of Composition (since 1980). His music has been performed throughout Armenia, as well as in Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the US. Zohrabyan's musical language is thoroughly interwoven with the musical tradition of his native Armenia. His compositions are marked by strict logic and general transparency, whilst the minutest structural details are worked out throughout the development of the piece. The composer concentrated on instrumental music from the outset of his career, showing marked preference for chamber genres. While still a student of Yeghiazaryan's at the conservatory, Zohrabyan wrote a number of works 27
for various instrumental combinations. He confined himself to chamber music in order to be able to concentrate on every detail, polish off the musical text and achieve inner harmony. His ideas found their most graphic realization in the two books of his Boomerang Games for instrumental ensemble, written some time after his graduation from the conservatory. Performed in Yerevan and at the Georges Pompidou Cultural Centre in Paris, this work summed up seven years of tireless searchings on the part of Ashot Zohrabyan. Outstanding musicians, such as the cellist Medea Abramyan and members of the Yerevan Chamber Orchestra, readily perform his works on the concert stage, where they are invariably acclaimed as original and attractive compositions. His works have also been performed during various festivals, such as the Holland Festival in the Netherlands.
28
ALAN HOVHANNES
Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and 434 opus numbers. However, the true tally is well over 500 surviving works since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works. Alan Hovhaness ranks among the most intrepid of musical explorers in 20th century classical music. He was a widely recorded and lauded composer in the 1950's and 60's, and the recipient of numerous awards. Rather ahead of his time aesthetically, he has, since the 1990's, enjoyed something of a revival on CD and radio, as audiences have 'caught up' with him. Yet there is little scholarly commentary on Hovhaness despite the wealth of radical individuality in some phases of his six decades of creativity. This is somewhat surprising given that during the 1940's and 50's he was firmly entrenched within that maverick group of American composers (others included Henry Cowell, Jonn Cage and Lou Harrison) who spearheaded one of the great shifts in 20th century American music, namely that of looking to non29
Western cultures for creative renewal in art music. In addition, Hovhaness spearheaded quasi-aleatoric textural music as early as the 1940's, a technique which became known as 'ad libitum' in the 1960's. The composer's huge output of more than 500-odd works was unusually diverse, prompting lively debate and opinion over the perceived merits of certain musical phases over others. Like other 20th century restless creators, such as Villa Lobos and Henry Cowell to name but two, Hovhaness did not set out to write a polished masterpiece with every work. But as Leonard Bernstein remarked in 1960, “Some of Hovhaness's music is very, very good”. Indeed, Hovhaness’s best works stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those of America’s most lauded composers, and many are more original if lesser known. But Hovhaness was an outsider by temperament and choice, his artistic credo somewhat impermeable to musical fashion and his aesthetic intent often more in sympathy with the Orient than Occident. Investigation of Hovhaness’s best music reveals a unique and thoroughly convincing assimilation of highly disparate traditions coming to the fore and receding over the course of his career, including Renaissance polyphony, South Indian classical music, Japanese Gagaku music and Korean Ah-ak music. Of course, many 20th century composers flirted with such exotica, but in Hovhaness they find perhaps the most seamless alchemy of all because it was more than mere flirtation. It was a musical engagement on an aesthetic as well as technical level.
30
GHAZAROS SARIAN
Ghazaros Saryan was born into a family of distinguished Armenian artists. He is the son of renowned painter Martiros Saryan and the grandson of the prominent writer Ghazaros Aghayan. Musically gifted, Ghazaros attended the Yerevan State Conservatory from 1934 to 1938, where he studied composition with Sargis Barkhudaryan and Vardges Talyan. Afterwards, he travelled to Moscow and enrolled in the composition class of Vissarion Shebalin at the Gnessin State Musical College. With the outbreak of World War II in 1941, Ghazaros was drafted into the Soviet army and served actively until 1945. Subsequently, he entered the Moscow Conservatory. Among his composition teachers were Dmitri Kabalevsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Anatoly Nikolayevich Alexandrov. Saryan graduated in 1950. Upon his return to Armenia, Saryan joined the faculty of the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory where he taught orchestration. During 1955-56, he was chairman of the Armenian Composers' Union. In 1960, he was appointed rector of the Conservatory, a position he retained until 1986. Saryan taught composition as well, training such distinguished Armenian composers as 31
Tigran Mansurian, Rober Altunyan, Vardan Adjemyan and Ruben Sargsyan. Ghazaros Saryan was essentially a composer of symphonic oeuvre, in which beautiful surface textures are juxtaposed with adventurous rhythmic and harmonic experimentation. His music displays a keen and sophisticated musical intellect, characterized by authenticity and integrity. Mr. Saryan has also written a number of notable works for chamber music, as well as several film scores.Saryan has received many awards, including the People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (1983) and the People's Artist of the USSR (1991). For his military service he was decorated with the Red Star Medal. Performed widely within the former Soviet Union, Saryan’s music is gradually obtaining greater recognition in European music capitals. His Armenia: Symphonic Panels was performed in 1991 at the Pierre Boulez Contemporary Music Center in Metz, France, and his Passacaglia was presented in 1995 during the Athens Music Festival.
32
STEPAN SHAKARIAN
Famous Armenian jazz and classical composer Stepan Shakaryan was Born in 23.10.1935 in Baku, but he likes to say that he was born in Airplane, because he knows many cultures and has different nations' classical and jazz compositions: Russian, American, French, Italian, Chinese etc... Studied at the conservatories of Yerevan, Moscow and Leningrad (St. Petersburg). He is the only Armenian student of Aram Khachatryan. Now he works in Yerevan State Conservatory After Komitas and plays Jazz in Gafesjian Art Museum.
33
34
CHARLES AZNAVOUR
Shahnour Vaghenag Aznavourian better known by his stage name Charles Aznavour (born 22 May 1924) is a French Armenian singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the bestknown singers in the world. Aznavour is known for his unique tenor voice: clear and ringing in its upper reaches, with gravelly and profound low notes. He has appeared in more than sixty movies, composed about a thousand songs (including at least 150 in English, 100 in Italian, 70 in Spanish, and 50 in German), and sold well over 100 million records. In 1998, Aznavour was named Entertainer of the Century by CNN and users of Time Online from around the globe. He was recognized as the century's outstanding performer, with nearly 18% of the total vote, edging out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. He has sung for presidents, popes and royalty, as well as at humanitarian events, and is the founder of the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia along with his long-time friend impresario Levon Sayan. In 2009, he was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland, as well 35
as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations at Geneva.
36
ABOUT This book is a complete collection of famous Armenian Composer's Biographies. Find the most gifted and great composers such as Aram Ilich Khachaturian, Arno Arutiunich Babajanian, Edvard Mikhaelich Mirzoian and a lot more. This is a non commercial project so the book is free and for everyone. Thanks to Music Of Armenia Website and Wikipedia for the main information about the great composers. Thank you for downloading this book!
Best Wishes from`Armenian Music Creators Community & Mkhitaryan Production.
©AMCC2014 All Rights Reserved
37
