The Washington Post
May 11, 2008 Sunday
Suburban Edition
Ruben Vartanyan; Conductor Defected From Soviet Union
by Matt Schudel; Washington Post Staff Writer
Ruben Vartanyan, an orchestra conductor who defected from the Soviet
Union in 1988 and spent the past 20 years in Northern Virginia,
leading the Arlington Philharmonic and other ensembles, died May 7 of
a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Arlington County. He was 71.
Dr. Vartanyan arrived in Arlington after an early career in which he
seemed poised for international success. He had conducted some of the
world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic and the
Moscow Philharmonic, and spent eight years as a conductor of the
Bolshoi Opera in Moscow.
In 1971, soon after Dr. Vartanyan became principal conductor of the
National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia, the government was overthrown
in a coup. The new military leader enjoyed music and became friendly
toward Dr. Vartanyan. The KGB took notice and asked the maestro to
pass on information about the Bolivian leaders. He refused, saying, "I
am not a spy. I am a musician."
He dated his difficulties to that moment. When he returned to Moscow
in 1976, he could not find regular work for four years. Only after
appealing directly to Soviet president Leonid I. Brezhnev and leading
a stunning performance of Georges Bizet’s opera "Carmen" did
Dr. Vartanyan get the chance to return to the podium as conductor of
the Bolshoi Opera.
Yet even after leading 536 performances at the Bolshoi, he was not
permitted to travel beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. Finally,
in 1988, he was allowed to return to Bolivia to lead a series of
concerts.
On Sept. 10, 1988, he went to the U.S. Embassy in La Paz and asked for
asylum. He never publicly described the circumstances of his escape,
saying only that "it was very difficult and very dangerous."
With sponsorship by the Jamestown Foundation, a private group that
assists defectors, Dr. Vartanyan settled in Arlington. His wife,
Tatiana, had died in 1986, and he started over with little more than
the clothes on his back and the music in his head.
He found occasional conducting jobs at George Mason University and the
Friday Morning Music Club and, in 1991, led a guest performance with
the Arlington Symphony, a community orchestra composed mostly of
professional musicians.
"Everyone knew he was the best conductor any one of us had seen,"
Bonnie Williams, the orchestra’s former executive director, told The
Washington Post in 1999.
Dr. Vartanyan was named full-time music director of the Arlington
Symphony in 1992 and, a year later, took on a second position as
principal conductor of the Williamsburg Symphonia, a chamber
orchestra. He immediately brought a new polish and professionalism to
the Arlington Symphony, winning laudatory reviews.
His "operatic experience is evident in the way he shapes a phrase,
almost as though it were being sung by a human voice rather than by an
orchestra," Post music critic Joseph McLellan wrote in reviewing a
1995 concert.
It was Dr. Vartanyan’s fortune to work "in the shadow of another
alumnus of the Moscow Conservatory," Mstisvlav Rostropovich, who was
the longtime music director of the National Symphony Orchestra.
"But, in fact," McLellan wrote, "Vartanyan’s conducting credentials
are more impressive than Rostropovich’s, and his performance Sunday
showed that these credentials are backed by solid practical
accomplishments."
Ruben Zavenovich Vartanyan was born June 3, 1936, in St. Petersburg
(then known as Leningrad). His mother was a pianist, and his father
was a clarinetist in a Soviet military orchestra.
As a boy, he fled Leningrad in 1941 with his mother as the German army
approached the city. They went to Dr. Vartanyan’s ancestral homeland
of Armenia.
By the age of 10, he was studying at a Moscow music academy before
entering the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated with a degree in piano
performance and, in 1964, received a PhD in operatic and symphonic
conducting.
In 1963, he spent a year as the understudy to Herbert von Karajan, the
renowned conductor of the Vienna State Opera and Vienna
Philharmonic. From 1964 to 1967, he was assistant conductor of the
Moscow Philharmonic under Kirill Kondrashin, one of the Soviet Union’s
most acclaimed conductors.
In 1967, Dr. Vartanyan was named principal conductor of the Armenian
State Symphony, which he led until he went to Bolivia. During his
internal exile in Moscow from 1976 to 1980, he encountered "an
absolute wall of silence."
"For 16 hours a day," he said, "I was studying scores, to keep up the
feeling that I am a conductor, I am a professional."
Dr. Vartanyan was hardly an active political dissident and supported
many of the reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, but he
constantly felt "under suspicion" in Moscow.
"I am an outspoken person," he said. "I could not disguise my
feelings." He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1999.
The Arlington Symphony went bankrupt in July 2005, but later that year
the Arlington Philharmonic was formed from its ashes, with
Dr. Vartanyan as its music director. He gave his final concert March
9, leading the orchestra in works by Mozat, Bizet and Tchaikovsky.
"He said, ‘It is important to make music, not just play music,’ " said
violist Tom Domingues, who performed in Dr. Vartanyan’s first and last
local appearances. "With him, you always felt you were making music."
The only survivor is a sister, Karina Vartanyan, of Moscow.