About Me
I am an Armenian composer who lived all his life trying to create serious art music that would be accessible for all people. Yet, my life was full of hardships, betrayal and irony, as I tried to submit myself, as best as I could, to the demands of the Socialist Realism. At one time I was praised as one of the greatest sons of the Soviet Union, another time I was denounced as an anti-people, formalist composer, along with my friends Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergey Prokofiev. At one time I was a favorite of Stalin, another time I was excommunicated from the Soviet life by the tyrant himself…
I stayed true to my artistic convictions. I continued to write music that was simple and easy to understand, never going too far out in my compositional experiments. And my work paid off. My music is easily recognizable by its orchestration and the rich Armenian sound that one can hear in all of my works. The Sabre-Dance from Gayane, which has become the trademark of my music, includes an Armenian wedding song from Leninakan (now Gyumri, Armenia) as the secondary theme. I gained world-wide recognition with my Piano and Violin Concerti, the Suites from ballets, Gayane (1943) and Spartakus (1955), music for theatre and films, as well as many other compositions.
I died on May 1, 1978, one month before my 75th birthday. During my life-time I received many honors and prizes, which include: People's Artist of the USSR, People's Artist of Armenian SSR, Hero of the Socialist Labor, Stalin Prize, Lenin Order etc. My statues were built in front of the Armenian National Opera and Ballet Theater and near my Moscow residence in Russia. My body was buried at the State Pantheon, in Yerevan, Armenia.
