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(b Yerevan, March 8, 1932). Armenian cellist and teacher. She studied first at the Yerevan Central Music School (where her teachers were K. Khizanov and L. Grigoryan) and then with Grigoryan at the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan (1950–53). She continued her studies with Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory (1953–6) and became a laureate of the H. Wihan International Cello Competition (1955). In 1956 she made her début as a soloist with the Armenian PO, and has performed regularly with the orchestra since then. In 1960 she became professor of cello at the Yerevan Conservatory. She has performed widely in Russia, the USA, Canada and Western Europe, as a soloist and during numerous festivals, specializing in 20th-century works, notably those by Armenian composers. She has given premières of some 100 works, a number of which are dedicated to her. Her playing is distinguished by refinement of intonation, a broad range of colour and a strong dramatic impetus....

(b Constantinople, 1881; d Chamonix, July 27, 1954). Armenian cellist. He studied with Grützmacher and while a student played chamber music with Brahms and Joachim. At the age of 17 he appeared as the soloist in Strauss's Don Quixote with the composer conducting and scored a triumph; he was then invited to play concertos with Nikisch and Mahler. In 1901 he settled in Paris, where Casals saw some of his fingerings and recognized that Alexanian shared his own, then revolutionary, ideas on technique and interpretation. Many years' collaboration followed, leading to the publication in 1922 of their joint treatise Traité théorique et pratique du violoncelle and in 1929 of Alexanian's analytical edition of the solo cello suites of Bach. Alexanian was professor of the Casals class at the Ecole Normale de Musique from 1921 to 1937, when he left for the USA. His classes in Paris, Baltimore and New York attracted artists and students from all over the world, and his influence extended far beyond his own pupils (among them Maurice Eisenberg and Antonio Janigro) to such cellists as Feuermann, Cassadó, Piatigorsky and Fournier. He was also a conductor of distinction....

(b Tehran, 1951). Iranian tār and setār player, teacher and composer. He studied at the National Music Conservatory in Tehran from the age of 13 and then at the University of Tehran from 1970 to 1974; his teachers included Habibollah Salehi, Ali Akbar Shahnazi, Nur Ali Borumand, Abdollah Davami, Mahmud Karimi, Yusef Forutan, Said Hormozi, Dariush Safvate and Hooshang Zarif. From 1971 Alizadeh studied and taught at the influential Centre for the Preservation and Propagation of Iranian Music in Tehran; he later taught music theory and tār at the University of Tehran. In 1976 he began his association with Iranian National Radio and Television, working as a soloist, a composer and a conductor. He co-founded the Chavosh Cultural Artistic Centre in 1977 and the Aref Ensemble in 1983; he also worked with the Sheyda Ensemble. In the early 1980s he studied musicology and composition at the University of Berlin. In ...

(b Manila, May 15, 1909; d Manila, August 11, 1991). Filipino composer, conductor and pianist. In 1930 he graduated from the Conservatory of the University of the Philippines with teacher’s diplomas in piano and in theory and composition; he then studied at the Chicago Musical College (BMus 1932, MMus 1933) and the Neotarian College of Philosophy, Kansas City (PhD 1947). He taught at the University of the Philippines Conservatory (1930–34) and was director and professor at the Manila (1934–9, 1949–52) and Cosmopolitan College (1948–9) conservatories. During World War II he appeared as a pianist and conductor in the USA, Canada, Europe and Hawaii. He was a state cultural adviser (1958–60) and founder-president of the National Federation of Music. He lectured in humanities at the University of the City of Manila (1968–75), and after 1978 worked mainly in the USA, appearing as a composer-conductor at the Seattle Opera House....

(Grigor′yevna)

(b Tbilisi, Feb 11, 1919). Georgian composer, pianist and teacher. At the Tbilisi Conservatory she studied the piano with A. Tulashvili and composition with A. Ryazanov and Andria Balanchivadze, graduating in 1940 and 1945 respectively. In 1947 and 1950 she was a postgraduate student at the Moscow Conservatory, studying with Goldenweiser (piano) and Litinsky and Shebalin (composition). In 1944 she began her career as a pianist and teacher; she has taught in Tbilisi at the First Music College, the Paliashvili Central Music School and, from 1953, at the conservatory, where she was appointed professor in 1973. On Eksanishvili’s initiative, the first Georgian experimental school-studio was set up in 1973; the teachers there have used the method she expounded in her textbook Aisi (published 1972) of developing creative abilities using Georgian folksong. Eksanishvili’s piano music, comprising original compositions, transcriptions of works by Georgian composers and music for children, is the most significant part of her output. In ...

(b Satu-Mare, Sept 9, 1946). Israeli violinist of Romanian birth. She studied at the Rabin Academy in Tel-Aviv, and then in the USA as a protégée of Isaac Stern. She also worked with Josef Gingold at Indiana University (1966–7), and with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School (1967–9). She won the 1968 Paganini International Competition at Genoa, and the 1971 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition at Brussels. Her prizewinning performance of the Sibelius concerto on the latter occasion was subsequently issued as a recording, and was praised for a maturity of approach and vibrant expression reminiscent of Ginette Neveu. Her New York recital début was in 1969, and her British début was at Windsor Castle in 1971. In 1986 she joined the faculty of Indiana University, where she gave the first performance of Donald Erb's Together Forever: Three Poems (1988) and recorded his violin concerto. She has toured widely, and is admired for intelligent and perceptive musicianship as well as spirited brilliance of technique....

(b Tbilisi, July 9, 1933). Georgian composer, pianist and teacher. He studied at the Tbilisi Conservatory and then at the Moscow Conservatory with Goldenweiser for piano and Khachaturian for composition. In 1962 he returned to the Tbilisi Conservatory to teach the piano, and in 1984 he was appointed rector of that institution as well as president of the Georgian Composers’ Union. Recognition as both pianist and composer came to him early, at a time when he belonged to a group of Georgian composers moving towards Stravinsky, Prokofiev and, most of all, Bartók. Gabunia's Igav-araki (‘Fable’, 1964) is one of the most successful syntheses of these Eastern European compositional models with a clear Georgian musical identity. The piece is a kind of madrigal comedy in the modern form of a concert satire. Many aspects of it were new to Georgian music – polyrhythm and polymetre, the sharp dissonance of polytonal chords, the variation of short motifs, the freshness and richness of timbre – and yet these features were organically connected to the modal and polyphonic particularities of west Georgian folk music. Bartók was the guiding spirit, as throughout Gabunia’s creative life. Another continuity lies in his adherence to chamber and chamber-orchestral music, allowing a deepening and emotional intensification of style which is realized with particular fullness in his Second Quartet, one of his best known works. For the piano he writes as a virtuoso, using modernist devices – clusters, mechanical rhythms, new modes of playing – alongside lyrical episodes that suggest a feeling for nature and an elegiac-pensive mood. His later compositions are simpler and more diatonic....

(Alexander)

(b Tabriz, Jan 23, 1903; d New York, April 14, 1981). American violinist and teacher of Armenian parentage. After studying with Konstantin Mostras at the School of the Philharmonic Society in Moscow (1916–22), and with Lucien Capet in Paris (1922–3), he made his Paris début in 1924. He moved to the USA in 1937 and was appointed to the Curtis Institute in 1944 and the Juilliard School of Music in 1946. During the summer he taught at the Meadowmount School of Music which he founded in 1944. In 1965 he was made an honorary member of the RAM, London, and he held honorary doctorates from Oberlin College and the Curtis Institute. In 1966 he received the Master Teacher Award of the American String Teachers Association.

Galamian's success as a teacher was remarkable. For four decades his students were among the laureates of every major international competition; some became virtuosos (Perlman, Zukerman, Kyung-Wha Chung, Luca, Laredo, Michael Rabin), while others belong to leading string quartets, occupy teaching posts, or are orchestral leaders. Galamian's approach was analytical and rational, with minute attention to every technical detail. His method embodied the best traditions of the Russian and French schools (particularly of Capet's ...

(George)

(b Vallejo, CA, Sept 30, 1954). American composer and bass player. He studied bass as a youth with Charles Manning and then under Charles Siani at San Francisco State University, where he received a BA in music. He also studied Japanese gagaku music with Togi Suenobu and has become proficient on the shō, sheng, and other Asian instruments. Izu has performed with Cecil Tayor, Steve Lacy, and James Newton, and has been an important figure in Asian American jazz. He was a founding member of the groups United Front and Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra, performing on the latter’s Grammy-nominated recording of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Far East Suite (1999, Asian Improv). He has also worked with Jon Jang’s Pan Asian Arkestra. Izu has served as artistic director of the Asian American Jazz Festival and on the faculty of Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts....

(b 1907; d 1987). Chinese qin zither master . Brought up in Changshu city, Jiangsu province, he first learnt to play the pipa lute, xiao flute and other instruments of the local sizhu (silk-and-bamboo) ensemble music. Around 1930 he began to devote himself to qin music, learning from various masters. In 1936 he took part in the founding of the Jin Yu qinshe (Qin Society of Contemporary Yu Region), becoming one of its leaders from 1939. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he was appointed a teacher and researcher in the Central Conservatory of Beijing in 1956, directing a number of students who subsequently became noted performers and scholars. Apart from transmitting the traditional repertory, he took part in the dapu movement to interpret early scores of pieces whose performing tradition had been lost, as well as composing some new pieces such as Shengli cao (‘Victory march’), which incorporated elements from folk music. Wu was also a maker and restorer of ...

(Sibay )

(b Datu Piang, Philippines, May 1, 1947). Master musician and teacher of kulintang, of Filipino birth. Kalanduyan is a respected artistic figure in Filipino communities around the United States and Canada for promoting Kulintang , an indigenous musical heritage predating Spanish and American colonization of the Philippines. Before settling in San Francisco, California, he was raised in the fishing village of Datu Piang, the artistic center of the Maguindanao people on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. As a young man, he won island-wide competitions on the gandingan (set of four large hanging knobbed gongs). As an undergraduate at Mindanao State University–Marawi, he toured the Far East with the Darangen Cultural Troupe. He was an artist-in-residence at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle under a Rockefeller Foundation grant in 1976, and graduated from UW with a MA in ethnomusicology in 1984. In 1995 Kalanduyan became the first artist of Filipino descent to be awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. Kalanduyan has taught and performed with nearly all of the ...

(b Detroit, Aug 31, 1952). American viola player and teacher of Armenian descent. She studied at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore with Walter Trampler (1969–70) and Karen Tuttle (1970–75), and won both the Lionel Tertis and the ARD (Munich) competitions. Her career developed rapidly both as a soloist and chamber music player, and also as a teacher. She was a faculty member at the New School of Music in Philadelphia (1981–6), the Mannes College in New York (1983–6) and the University of Indiana School of Music in Bloomington (1985–7), and teaches regularly at the Lausanne Conservatoire. She has also taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg since 1989 and teaches regularly at festivals such as Marlboro, Spoleto and Lockenhaus. A fine chamber music player, she has played with the Beaux Arts Trio and the Guarneri, Galimir and Tokyo string quartets. In ...

(b Durrës, June 10, 1930; d Tirana, Albania, Jan 18, 2019). Albanian composer, pianist, and teacher. After early piano lessons in Durrës, he studied at the Jordan Misja Art Lyceum, Tirana (1947–9), subsequently working as a pianist for the Ensemble of the People's Army (1950–53) and at the Opera (1953–5). He also taught the piano at the Durrës elementary music school. He then resumed his studies at the Moscow Conservatory (1959–61), and, after Albania's breach with the USSR, at the newly-founded Tirana Conservatory with Zadeja (1962–4). He was head of the music department at the Ministry of Education and Culture (1964–9), head of composition at the Tirana Conservatory (1969–74), and professor of harmony and analysis at the Durrës elementary music school (1974–8). In 1978 he returned to teach at the Tirana Conservatory. From ...

(Anne Keng-Wai)

(b Taipei, Taiwan, Jan 14, 1953). Canadian composer, pianist, and educator of Chinese origin. She immigrated to Canada from Taiwan in 1967, studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto (BSc 1973; BMus 1978) from 1970 to 1978, and receiving her Master’s of Music from McGill University in 1981, where she studied with Brian Cherney, Bengt Hambraeus, Jon Rea, Mariano Etkin, and Alcides Lanza. During the years 1981–3 she studied with Klaus Huber at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. Two of her early works (Dindle; Ballad of Endless Woe) won first prize in the Performing Rights Organization of Canada (PROCAN) Young Composer’s contest in 1979. She has also won the Music Today award (1985, Melboac), and the Scotia Music Festival competition (1991, Nabripamo) among others. She has been commissioned by artists such as Ensemble Resonance, Duo Solista, and Han Mei. In ...

(b Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, Jan 29, 1960). American violinist of Chinese extraction. He played in his first concert at the age of seven and in 1972 won the Taiwan National Youth Competition, enabling him to study with Robert Pikler at the Sydney Conservatorium until 1975. He was a pupil of Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School, New York (1975–8), and in 1977 won first prize in the Queen Sophia International Competition in Madrid. He made his US début in 1979 at the Mostly Mozart Festival and in 1981, through the influence of Isaac Stern, undertook an extensive tour of mainland China and East Asia. He has since achieved an international reputation as a soloist and chamber musician (in a trio with the pianist Yefim Bronfman and the cellist Gary Hoffman) and is also on the faculty of the Juilliard School. Outstanding among his many recordings are the violin concertos of Sibelius, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. His elegant playing is based on perfect intonation, an impeccable technique and a strong feeling for the architecture of the music. He plays a Guarneri del Gesù violin ‘The Duke of Camposelice’, dated ...

(b Yerevan, January 31, 1956; d Glendale, Feb 24, 2001). Armenian composer and pianist. He attended the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan where he studied composition with Sar‘ian, with whom he undertook postgraduate work (1975–83), and in 1981 completed studies in the piano faculty with G. Saradzhev. He taught harmony and composition at the Yerevan Conservatory from 1984, later becoming a senior lecturer. From 1992 to 1997 he was deputy Minister of Culture and Sport. He won various awards in Armenia and the former Soviet Union. His style was based on both Near Eastern and Armenian traditions. His piano compositions, which are similar to early 20th-century works of the region (especially those of Komitas and Tigranian), and his vocal cycles are notable for their transparent texture and linear writing which is both ascetic and fluid. The principle of variation of short motifs and an improvisational manner of development are characteristic of Lusikian; this trait begins with the Cello Sonata (...

(b Bombay [now Mumbai], India, Sept 25, 1908; d Santa Monica, CA, Oct 19, 2002). Violinist and conductor of Indian birth. He studied at the University of Bombay and at Trinity College of Music, London. Mehta founded the Bombay SO in 1935 and served as its concertmaster for ten years before becoming its conductor. In 1940 he formed the Bombay String Quartet, which he led for 15 years. Encouraged by Efrem Zimbalist, he studied for a time with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School, then served as assistant concertmaster of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England, under Barbirolli (1955–9). He returned to America in 1959, at which time he joined the Curtis String Quartet in Philadelphia, performing with them throughout the United States for five years. In Los Angeles, where he settled in 1964, Mehta founded the American Youth SO (1964) and served on the faculty of UCLA (...

(b Tashkent, Feb 10, 1942). Uzbek rubāb player, teacher and composer. He came from a family of musicians and began to study the rubāb at the age of six with his father, the composer and instrumental performer Muhammadjan Mirzayev. At the age of 14 Shavkat was invited to work with the Uzbek Philharmonic Society, and in 1960 he began to compose songs in the traditional Uzbek classical style. Between 1958 and 1972 he took part in tours of several countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Russia, and from 1960 to 1970 he worked for the Uzbek State Philharmonia. He studied Uzbek classical music with Fakhriddin Sadyqov at the Tashkent State Conservatory from 1972 to 1977, at the same time teaching singing and the Uzbek rubāb; he continued to teach at the Conservatory until 1982. From 1980 to 1982 he directed the makom ensemble at Uzbek State Radio, and in ...

[Oganyan, Aleksandr]

(b Soganlug, Georgia, 1889; d Tbilisi, May 31, 1932). Armenian k‘emanch‘a player, teacher, theorist and composer. He began to play the k‘emanch‘a at the age of seven and joined a sazander ensemble in which he played the tiplipito and the duduk as well as the k‘emanch‘a. He became a soloist in the composer Anton Mailian's Eastern Orchestra in Baku in 1905 and often appeared with the instrumental ashugh group Haziri in Tbilisi. In the same year he toured the Transcaucasian region, Central Asia and Iran with two mugam performers, the singer D. Karyagdogli and the t‘a ṙ player K. Pirimov. During the period 1906–12 recordings of his performances of classical mugam and Armenian dance music were released by the companies Kontzert-Rekord, Patye and Sport-Rekord. He studied the k‘emanch‘a with Oganez Oganezov, an authority on the Persian mugam, and took the pseudonym Oganezashvili (‘son of Oganez’) in his honour; Oganezashvili added a fourth string to the ...

(b Kōbe, Japan, March 25, 1961). Japanese pianist. The son of a jazz pianist and organist, he was a reluctant student of classical piano as a child. At first, under the influence of Jimmy Smith, he would only play jazz on the Hammond organ, but after attending a concert by Oscar Peterson at the age of 12 he took up jazz piano and transcribed some of Peterson’s solos. From 1980 he attended the Berklee College of Music, where he quickly assimilated new ideas through his work with Gary Burton and from the playing of such musicians as Chick Corea. Ozone recorded albums in a duo with Phil Wilson (1982), a faculty member at Berklee, and in a quartet led by Bobby Shew. More significantly, after graduating he joined Burton’s band and in 1983 made a world tour; he also began to give performances as an unaccompanied soloist. In ...