Aram Khachaturian

Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (Арам Ильич Хачатурян; Արամ Խաչատրյան, ; 6 June 1903 – 1 May 1978) was a Soviet Armenian composer and conductor.

He is considered one of the leading Soviet composers.

Aram Khachaturian was born on 6 June (24 May in Old Style) 1903 in the city of Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia) into an Armenian family.

Some sources indicate Kojori, a village near Tiflis, as his birthplace.

Khachaturian himself said he was born in Kojori.

His father, Yeghia (Ilya), was born in the village of Upper Aza near Ordubad in Nakhichevan (present-day Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan) and moved to Tiflis at the age of 13; he owned a bookbinding shop by the age of 25.

His mother, Kumash Sarkisovna, was from Lower Aza, also a village near Ordubad.

Khachaturian's parents were betrothed before knowing each other, when Kumash was 9 and Yeghia was 19.

They had 5 children, one daughter and four sons, of whom Aram was the youngest.

From 1906 to 1922 Khachaturian lived at 93 Uznadze Street in Tbilisi.

Khachaturian received primary education at the commercial school of Tiflis, a school for merchants.

He considered a career either in medicine or engineering.

In 1917, the Bolsheviks rose to power in Russia in the October Revolution.

After over two years of fragile independence, Armenia fell to Soviet rule in late 1920.

Born and raised in Tbilisi (now the capital of Georgia), Khachaturian moved to Moscow in 1921 following the Sovietization of the Caucasus.

Without prior music training, he enrolled in the Gnessin Musical Institute, subsequently studying at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of Nikolai Myaskovsky, among others.

Georgia was also Sovietized by the spring of 1921.

In 1921, the eighteen-year-old Khachaturian moved to Moscow to join his oldest brother, Suren, who had settled in Moscow earlier and was a stage director at the Moscow Art Theatre by the time of his arrival.

Both countries formally became part of the Soviet Union in December 1922.

He enrolled at the Gnessin Musical Institute in 1922, simultaneously studying biology at Moscow State University.

During most of his career, Khachaturian was approved by the Soviet government and held several high posts in the Union of Soviet Composers from the late 1930s, although he joined the Communist Party only in 1943.

His first major work, the Piano Concerto (1936), popularized his name within and outside the Soviet Union.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries and throughout the early Soviet period, Tiflis (known as Tbilisi after 1936) was the largest city and the administrative center of the Caucasus.

In Tiflis, which has historically been multicultural, Khachaturian was exposed to various cultures.

The city had a large Armenian population and was a major Armenian cultural center until the Russian Revolution and the following years.

It was followed by the Violin Concerto (1940) and the Cello Concerto (1946).

His other significant compositions include the Masquerade Suite (1941), the Anthem of the Armenian SSR (1944), three symphonies (1935, 1943, 1947), and around 25 film scores.

Khachaturian is best known for his ballet music—Gayane (1942) and Spartacus (1954).

His most popular piece, the "Sabre Dance" from Gayane, has been used extensively in popular culture and has been performed by a number of musicians worldwide.

His style is "characterized by colorful harmonies, captivating rhythms, virtuosity, improvisations, and sensuous melodies".

Along with Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, he was officially denounced as a "formalist" and his music dubbed "anti-people" in 1948 but was restored later that year.

After 1950 he taught at the Gnessin Institute and the Moscow Conservatory and turned to conducting.

He traveled to Europe, Latin America and the United States with concerts of his own works.

In a 1952 article "My Idea of the Folk Element in Music", Khachaturian described the city environment and its influence on his career:

"I grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music: popular festivities, rites, joyous and sad events in the life of the people always accompanied by music, the vivid tunes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian songs and dances performed by folk bards [ ashugs ] and musicians — such were the impressions that became deeply engraved on my memory, that determined my musical thinking. They shaped my musical consciousness and lay at the foundations of my artistic personality... Whatever the changes and improvements that took place in my musical taste in later years, their original substance, formed in early childhood in close communion with the people, has always remained the natural soil nourishing all my work."

In 1957 Khachaturian became the Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, a position he held until his death.

Khachaturian composed the first Armenian ballet music, symphony, concerto, and film score.

He is considered the most renowned Armenian composer of the 20th century.

While following the established musical traditions of Russia, he broadly incorporated Armenian and, to lesser extent, Caucasian, Eastern and Central European, and Middle Eastern peoples' folk music into his works.

He is highly regarded in Armenia, where he is considered a "national treasure".