Ashot Ariyan


Ashot Ariyan is an Armenian composer and pianist, residing in Canada. He is the author of more than 25 compositions including an opera-ballet, two symphonies, a piano concerto, two symphonic frescos, and a number of chamber works. His compositions have been performed in concert halls in Russia, Armenia, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Canada and the United States.

Biography

A native of Armenia, he moved to Moscow to continue his education in composition at the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, where he graduated with distinction in 2001. A year later, after gaining a master's degree, he became a Teaching Assistant of Prof. Karen Khachaturian at the Moscow Conservatory and taught as a lecturer in Composition and Music Theory.
In 2007 he moved to Canada to complete his doctoral thesis at the University of Montreal, receiving his doctorate in 2013. The goal of his doctoral program was to revive the neglected genre of opera-ballet by writing his own work in that medium, entitled "Bilgamesh", in which the archaic Mesopotamian languages Sumerian and Akkadian are used exclusively.
Ashot Ariyan has taught Composition and Music Theory at several music institutions including the Central Music School of Moscow Conservatory, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the University of Montreal, and McMaster University.
In 1999, to wide acclaim, Ashot Ariyan performed his own "Concerto-Brevis" for piano and orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, accompanied by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2009 his symphonic fresco "Sounds of Stonehenge" was performed in Montreal by the UdeM Symphony Orchestra. Later, in January 2011, the same work was performed in Armenia by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and in Moscow by the Moscow State Orchestra. His recent work, Planète X for seven instruments, was performed in Montreal with great success by the Arkea ensemble in November 2013. Many of his chamber works were first performed at the Moscow Autumn International Music Festival. One of his latest works is a Cycle of 12 Fugues and Postludes for piano, commissioned by the Region of Waterloo Art Fund. In May 2022, a recording company RMN Music has released a "Fugue and Postlude in A" as part of the Modern Music for Piano 4 catalog. In 2016 his music accompanied a presentation of the ballet "Two Suns" directed by Rudolf Kharatian and dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian genocide.
Starting 2020 the ballet "Two Suns" has periodically been broadcast on the Mezzo TV. Ashot Ariyan has recently been commissioned to compose a piano piece for the Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition which will be held in October 2023.

Selected works and music pieces

Academic publications

  • Ashot Ariyan Bilgamesh, un ballet-opéra en deux actes: symbiose d'un genre oublié, une mythologie archaïque et une langue morte, Saarbrücken, Deutschland: Presses Académiques Francophones, 2015,.

    Stage

  • Bilgamesh , 2009–12

    Orchestral music

  • Symphony No. 1, 'Manfred', string orchestra, harp, timpani, 1994–96
  • Concerto-Brevis, piano, orchestra, 1999
  • Symphony No. 2, 2000–01
  • Skanda, duduk, orchestra, fixed media, 2002
  • Sounds of Stonehenge, 2009
  • Perpetuum Mobile, string orchestra, 2016
  • Adagio, string orchestra, 2024

    Choral music

  • For Armenia, mixed chorus, 1997
  • Deus Lucem, mixed chorus, 2014

    Vocal music

  • Romance, voice, piano, 1989
  • Three Taron Songs, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1994
  • Das Grablied, baritone, piano, 2017

    Piano music

  • Children's Pieces, 1989, revised 2015
  • Sonata, 1990
  • Toccata, Intermedia and Fugue, 1995
  • Three Pieces, 1997
  • 12 Fugues and Postludes, 2015
  • "Nashville Nocturne" for piano, 2023
  • Five Elegant Pieces for piano, 2024

    Chamber music

  • Ballade, clarinet, piano, 1991
  • Trio, violin, cello, piano, 1993–94
  • Capriccio, violin, 1997
  • Amaras, clarinet, cello, piano, 1997
  • Dedication, cello, 1998
  • String Quartet No. 1, 1998–99
  • Resonances, French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, 2 violins, viola, cello, piano, 2005–06
  • Dusk, cello, piano, 2007
  • Planète X., 7 players, 2013
  • Sonata for violin and piano, 2020–21
  • String Quartet No. 2, 2022

    Links

  • Samvel Danielyan A Canadian-Armenian composer Ashot Ariyan about his works, particularly, his opera-ballet "Bilgamesh" Aravot, 2016
  • Denis Gougeon "Que le soleil soit toujours avec vous" Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur
  • Ариян Ашот. В НАЧАЛЕ БЫЛ ЗВУК
  • The Nashville Nocturne
Category:Musicians from Moscow
Category:20th-century Armenian classical composers
Category:Armenian composers
Category:Russian people of Armenian descent
Category:Living people
Category:21st-century classical composers
Category:Canadian people of Armenian descent
Category:1973 births
Category:Academic staff of Moscow Conservatory