Aram Gharabekian
Aram Gharabekian (4 July 1955 – 10 January 2014) was an Iranian-born Armenian conductor, former Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia. In 1983 he founded and until 1996 directed and conducted the Boston SinfoNova Orchestra.
Biography
Aram Gharabekian was born into an Armenian family in Tehran, Iran,[1] on 4 July 1955. He moved to the United States at the age of 17.[2] He graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston, then continued his postgraduate studies at Mainz University in Germany. He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in Italy, and in 1979 became one of a few conducting pupils of Sergiu Celibidache in Germany. Gharabekian also studied composition and conducting under Jacob Druckman and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts.
Gharabekian was formerly the Principal Guest Conductor of the NRCU Symphony Orchestra in Kiev. He led them in recording their first Compact Disc, featuring Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, which was released in 1996 on Russian Disc's "Audiophile Series". Following a critically acclaimed guest appearance with the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra in 1991, Maestro Gharabekian was invited by the Ukrainian Minister of Culture to assume the position of Artistic Advisor and Conductor.
Active as a guest conductor, Gharabekian had been the Principal Guest Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, and appeared with the Sinfonietta München. He also led the Ukrainian National Symphony, the Ukrainian State Opera and Ballet, the West Ukrainian Philharmonic, Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Fresno Philharmonic, Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra and Hangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. On New Year's Eve in 1999 Gharabekian led an orchestra and chorus in Hangzhou, China of 300 musicians from 6 countries in a televised millennium celebration concert featuring Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
Gharabekian died in Los Angeles on January 10, 2014 at the age of 58.[3]
Awards
- 1989 Lucien Wulsin Performance Award
- 1988 American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Award for Adventuresome Programming
- Harvard Musical Association's "Best Performance Award"
References
- ↑ "Conductor Aram Gharabekian Dies at 58". The Armenian Weekly. 13 January 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
- ↑ "Aram Gharabekian, 58; conductor promoted works by Armenian composers". Bostonglobe. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
- ↑ "Conductor Aram Gharabekian Passes Away". Asbarez. 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.