Born: January 27, 1939 in Beirut, Lebanon

Tigran Mansurian was born in 1939 in Beirut to Armenian parents. They returned to Yerevan in 1947. Widely regarded as Armenia's leading composer, Mansurian taught at the Komitas-State Conservatory from 1960, and was its director from 1990, a position he soon relinquished to concentrate exclusively on writing music. His oeuvre includes vocal, chamber and orchestral works. In 2003 ECM released "Hayren" (ECM New Series 1754) with music of Komitas and Mansurian played by Kim Kashkashian, Robyn Schulkowsky and Mansurian himself on the piano, followed in 2004 by "Monodia" (ECM New Series 1850/51), a double album of Mansurian's music featuring Kashkashian, Jan Garbarek, Leonidas Kavakos, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Poppen.

www.ecmrecords.com

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Born: January 27, 1939 in Beirut, Lebanon
Genre: Avant-Garde, Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Concerto, Keyboard, Choral

Over the course of a long career, Tigran Mansurian has become one of Armenia's cultural treasures. Mansurian was born in Beirut, but his family returned to their homeland in 1947, and he eventually attended Yerevan's Conservatory, the same school where he would teach in the 1970s-'80s and then direct in the 1990s. His music has several champions, such as cellist Karine Georgian, violist Kim Kashkashian and the Rosamunde Quartett. Mansurian has written in all genres, with orchestral, chamber, and vocal works dominating his catalog, but he also has scored dozens of films. His music -- developing in stylistic phases over his career -- is concise, capable of expressing a great deal lyrically, by economical means. Elements of neo-classicism, serialism, and, frequently, Armenian monody and the music of Komitas, can be found in it.

- Patsy Morita (All Music Guide)