Sirvart Kalpakyan Karamanuk

Sirvart Kalpakyan Karamanuk (Սիրվարդ Գալբագեան Գարամանուկ; 1 December 1912 – 20 October 2008) was an Armenian composer, pianist and teacher, living in Istanbul.

Karamanuk was born in the Üsküdar district of Constantinople, Ottoman Empire.

She began studying the piano at the age of five with Stepan Papelyan, and later graduated from the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory (now Istanbul University State Conservatory )in 1939, where her principal teacher was Ferdi Statzer.

She also took classes with Cemal Reşit Rey, Ahmet Adnan Saygun and Licco Amar in music theory, history and chamber music.

Subsequently, Karamanuk took private lessons in piano with Lazare Lévy and composition with Jean Roger-Ducasse for a short period.

Karamanuk composed numerous songs, choral works, large-scale compositions for chorus and orchestra (Akhtamar and The Song of Bedros Tourian), a children’s operetta (Tomorrow’s Artists), children's songs, piano compositions, and arrangements of liturgical chants.

Her works have been performed in several countries and recorded by distinguished soloists and ensembles.

Concerts devoted entirely to her compositions have been organised in Yerevan's Aram Khachaturian House-Museum and Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall.

In 2004, a film titled Akhtamar based on Karamanuk's eponymous symphonic poem was premiered in Yerevan's Moscow Cinema.

Her compositions are published by the Armenian General Benevolent Union of America, the Turkish-Armenian Teachers Association of Istanbul and the Charents Museum of Literature and Arts of Armenia, where her manuscripts are reposited.

She was honored with a pontifical encyclical and the St. Sahag-St.

Mesrob Medal from the Catholicos of All Armenians, Vazgen I; a pontifical encyclical and the St. Mesrob Mashtots Medal from the Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, Aram I.

She also received a pastoral letter and a celebrative medal by Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan of Constantinople.

In 2005 Robert Kocharyan, former President of Armenia, issued a proclamation of gratitude to Sirvart Karamanuk, for her enduring contributions to Armenian culture.

Sirvart Karamanuk's Armeniapedia entry