TODAY IS ALEKSANDER SPENDIARYAN’S BIRTHDAY

2012-11-01 14:33:57

Aleksander Spendiaryan, a compositor, conductor, pedagog, ASSR people’s
artist was born on this day in 1871, Kakhovka, Ukraine. The State
Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of Armenia. His compositions include
the opera Almast and the Yerevan Etudes among others. He studied with
the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who greatly admired his
music and encouraged him to turn deeper into his people’s folklore. On
December 10, 1924, Spendiarian, newly arrived in Yerevan from
Russia, conducted an 18-member orchestra consisting of conservatory
professors and students. This inaugural concert proved that Armenia
had the potential to sustain a symphony orchestra. The following
year, on March 20, 1925, Professor Arshak Adamian, Rector of the
Yerevan Conservatory, led the first concert of the then newly founded
symphony orchestra. At the time, Spendiarian accurately predicted,
“There will come a time, when our yet modest student orchestra will
proudly bear the honorary title of the Armenian State Orchestra”. In
1967, the Alexander Spendiarian House Museum was established in the
house where the composer lived during the last years of his life.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress