VIOLINIST VARTAN MANOOGIAN DIES
Jacob Stockinger
ies/201218
7/13/2007 10:05 am
Virtuoso violinist and longtime University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professor Vartan Manoogian died Thursday in Spain. He was 71.
Manoogian was also the director of the annual Madeleine Island Chamber
Music Festival, held each summer on the Apostle Islands in northern
Wisconsin on Lake Superior. He also returned each summer to a festival
in Spain where he taught and performed, and frequently performed at
festivals in Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
"We are shocked and devastated. This was such a surprise," said John
Schaffer, director of the UW School of Music, who has worked with
Manoogian for 20 years. "Yesterday there was a pall over the whole
school. Vartan was so alive and vibrant. He was such a elegant and
kind man."
According to Schaffer, the cause of death is still not known exactly,
although cardiac problems are suspected.
"Vartan was one of the most valuable members of the music faculty,"
Schaffer said. "He is going to be seriously missed. I think that’s the
sentiment all my colleagues feel. It’s a sudden loss, and he left such
a legacy. To replace him and move on just won’t be possible. Whatever
happens will have to be different."
At the time of his death, Manoogian was working on a multiple-CD
recording project of violin trios for students. He wrote a four-volume
series of books on violin technique and created a video guide to
orchestral bowing. He also recorded the complete solo sonatas and
partitas of J.S. Bach, which he performed together for the first time
in 2000 in Madison.
Manoogian was known for his devotion to both the classical repertoire
and new music, and he enjoyed unusual crossover performances, such
as playing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the UW Marching Band
and doing improvisational performances with UW jazz saxophonist
Roscoe Mitchell.
Manoogian was born in 1936 in Baghdad to Armenian parents, who had
sought political asylum there. At age 16, he went to France to study
at the National Conservatory in Paris where he won top prizes and
took master classes from composer and violinist George Enescu. He
then came to America and studied under master violin teacher Ivan
Galamian at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.
He returned to Europe, where he took a post with the Lausanne Chamber
Orchestra in Switzerland and then became the concertmaster of the
renowned Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under famed conductor Ernest
Ansermet.
Back in the U.S., Manoogian taught at the prestigious North Carolina
School of the Arts, where he also played in the Claremont String
Quartet, and at Indiana University. In 1976, he won an Emmy for a
performance of a Mozart violin concerto on educational television. Many
prominent composers dedicated new works to him.
He came to the UW-Madison in 1980, where he performed solo and often
with other faculty members. He quickly established a reputation
for teaching top-ranking students who went on to major professional
music careers.
Manoogian is survived by his wife of 40 years, artist Brigitte
Manoogian, and their son, Avedis, a pianist in Minneapolis who often
performed with his father.