Los Angeles Times
Jan 27 2015

Musician John Bilezikjian dies at 66; master of the Middle Eastern oud

ohn Bilezikjian, a masterful player of the Middle Eastern oud whose
eclectic career included performances and recordings with Leonard
Cohen, Little Richard, Robert Palmer, Luis Miguel and Placido Domingo
and programs of traditional Armenian music as well as appearances with
the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Pops and Los Angeles Mandolin
Orchestra, has died. He was 66.

Bilezikjian died Jan. 19 at his home Mission Viejo after a long bout
with kidney disease, according to his close friend and frequent
musical companion Barry Fisher.

Bilezikjian’s expressive playing of the oud, a pear-shaped stringed
instrument similar to the lute, can be heard in more than 82 film and
television soundtracks, including “Schindler’s List” and “The French
Connection.”

Beyond his mastery of the oud, Bilezikjian’s instrumental virtuosity
was extraordinary, reaching from the difficult-to-master 11-string oud
to the violin and beyond. In a 1986 interview with the Los Angeles
Times he claimed he could play 40 different instruments, including
guitar, drums, zither and lute. “But the oud,” he added, “is my life.”

Though he was often described as “America’s oud virtuoso,” Bilezikjian
was modest about his skills, jokingly referring to himself as “just an
old country oud player.”

The music that attracted Bilezikjian’s interest was equally far
reaching. “I have no restrictions,” he told The Times, describing a
concert in which he played Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and
a medley of themes from “Chariots of Fire,” “E.T.” and “Star Wars.”

Bilezikjian’s audience was worldwide, his role as a major figure in
the genre of world music affirmed by his authentic interpretations of
the music of Armenia, Turkey, the Arab world, Greece, Russia, Israel,
Eastern Europe, Spain, Asia, Latin America and beyond.

In addition to his instrumental diversity, Bilezikjian also sang in as
many as a dozen different languages.

John Haig Bilezikjian was born Feb. 1, 1948, in Los Angeles to
Armenian parents and a musical family environment. His father was a
classical violinist, his grandfather played the oud, and his mother
was a singer.

His fascination with music began to blossom before he was 5.
Displaying an early aptitude, he was accepted into a children’s
ensemble, playing the ukulele. But hearing his father play the violin
was a constant distraction.

“I went to my mom,” Bilezikjian recalled in an interview for the
Fretboard Journal. “And I said, ‘Mom, I want to play like Daddy. I
want to play that violin.” And the next day I had a violin in my
hands.”

By the time he was 10, under the guidance of his father, he had
acquired sufficient mastery of the violin to play the Paganini
Caprices. The close proximity of his grandfather’s oud, however,
opened yet another musical vista. And once again he revealed more
musical aptitude, quickly beginning to master the challenging demands
of the 11-string oud, teaching himself by listening to his parents’
old 78 rpm recordings of Armenian music. A year later, he was playing
both the violin and the oud in his own band, the Halehs.

While performing around Los Angeles with the Halehs, Bilezikjian
attended San Fernando Valley State College (now Cal State Northridge),
earning a bachelor’s degree in violin, oud, performance and
composition.

After graduation, he decided to take charge of his post-collegiate career.

“I said to myself,” Bilezikjian told the Fretboard Journal, “I’m going
to call Paramount Studios, and I’m going to ask if I can come down and
audition with my oud.”

The result was a meeting with composer Lalo Schfrin, which led to the
presence of Bilezikjian’s oud in Schifrin’s theme music for the hit
television series “Mission: Impossible.” It also opened the door to
the world of studio music for films and television. In the busy,
decades-long studio career that followed, Bilezikjian’s oud playing
became one of the unique timbres in background music for every kind of
media. But he wasn’t limited to the oud and the violin, also playing
mandolin, balalaika, tamburitza, dombra and bouzouki.

In the late ’70s, another important career track opened for
Bilezikjian when he received a call from Leonard Cohen’s office.
Bilezikjian claimed to have had no idea who the singer-songwriter was
at that time. But they hit it off musically in a creative relationship
that lasted until 1988.

Bilezikjian’s career lasted well into his final years as he continued
to celebrate the Armenian music that was at the center of his art
despite the onset of the kidney disease that took his life.

His music, in all its many forms, can be heard on numerous recordings
on Dantz Records, the company he founded in Laguna Hills.

Survivors include his wife, Helen; sons John Bilezikjian and George
Bilezikjian, stepsons Mason Walton and Morgan Walton, and three
grandsons.