Tigran Mansurian
Tigran Mansurian
Genre:
Classical
Tigran Mansurian (Armenian: Տիգրան Մանսուրյան, sometimes translated Tigran Mansourian, born 27 January 1939) is an Armenian composer of classical music and film scores. Born in Beirut, Mansurian moved with his family back to their ancestral Armenia in 1947, and studied at the Yerevan Conservatory of which he would eventually become the director.
In the 1960s he was attracted by the ideas of the Western new music avant-garde but became increasingly convinced of the importance of the spirit of place and of composing in an authentically Armenian voice. “Our position on the map of music and culture,” he has written, “is exactly on the spot where East and West meet.” It is this special vantage point that fires his creative imagination.
Tigran Mansurian remains fascinated by the relationship of Armenia’s sacred music to its folk songs, so powerfully brought together in the work of Komitas, an enduring influence. In 2000, Mansurian recorded his own arrangements of Komitas on Hayren, a disc that also included premiere recordings of his music for viola and percussion, played by Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky.
This was followed by Monodia, the wide-ranging composer portrait album, recorded 2001-2002, with cast including Kim Kashkashian, Leonidas Kavakos, Jan Garbarek, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Poppen. The album "Monodia" was nominated for the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)" and "Best Classical Contemporary Composition".
In the 1960s he was attracted by the ideas of the Western new music avant-garde but became increasingly convinced of the importance of the spirit of place and of composing in an authentically Armenian voice. “Our position on the map of music and culture,” he has written, “is exactly on the spot where East and West meet.” It is this special vantage point that fires his creative imagination.
Tigran Mansurian remains fascinated by the relationship of Armenia’s sacred music to its folk songs, so powerfully brought together in the work of Komitas, an enduring influence. In 2000, Mansurian recorded his own arrangements of Komitas on Hayren, a disc that also included premiere recordings of his music for viola and percussion, played by Kim Kashkashian and Robyn Schulkowsky.
This was followed by Monodia, the wide-ranging composer portrait album, recorded 2001-2002, with cast including Kim Kashkashian, Leonidas Kavakos, Jan Garbarek, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Poppen. The album "Monodia" was nominated for the 2005 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)" and "Best Classical Contemporary Composition".
