TIGRAN MANSURIAN NOMINATED FOR GRAMMY

ArmenPress
Feb 11 2005

LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY 11, ARMENPRESS: Prominent Armenian composer,
Tigran Mansurian, was nominated by a German company that produced
a laser disc with his works for the 47th Annual Grammy Awards that
will take place on February 13 in Los Angeles Classical Contemporary
Composition category.

Tigran Mansurian was born in Beirut in 1939. In 1947 his family
moved to Armenia, finally settling in the capital Yerevan in 1956.
Mansurian studied at the Yerevan Music Academy and completed
his PhD at the Komitas State Conservatory where he later taught
contemporary music analysis. In a short time he became one of Armenia’s
leading composers, establishing strong creative relationships with
international performers and composers such as Valentin Silvestrov,
Arvo Part, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Andre Volkonsky and
Edison Denisov as well as Kim Kashkashian, Jan Garbarek, and the
Hilliard Ensemble.

Mansurian was the director of the Komitas Conservatory in the 1990s. He
has recently retired as an administrator and teacher, and concentrates
exclusively on composition. Mansurian’s musical style is characterized
mainly by the organic synthesis of ancient Armenian musical traditions
and contemporary European composition methods. His oeuvre comprises
orchestral works, seven concerti for strings and orchestra, sonatas
for cello and piano, three string quartets, madrigals, chamber music
and works for solo instruments.