27 Facts About Loris Tjeknavorian

Loris Haykasi Tjeknavorian is an Iranian Armenian composer and conductor.

Loris Tjeknavorian has appeared internationally as a conductor, serving as the principal conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1989 to 1998 and later from 1999 to 2000.

Loris Tjeknavorian has made some 100 recordings with RCA, Philips, EMI, ASV, and others.

Loris Tjeknavorian graduated with honours and shortly thereafter, the Austrian music publisher Doblinger published four of his piano compositions as well as his Ballet Fantastique for three pianos, celeste and percussion in Vienna.

Loris Tjeknavorian mounted the first Archives exhibition to great success, and began work on an opera based on the epic poem of Rostam and Sohrab.

Loris Tjeknavorian returned to Austria in 1963 to further his studies in Salzburg at the Mozarteum.

Loris Tjeknavorian composed over 130 short pieces for beginning to advanced students.

Loris Tjeknavorian moved to the United States in 1965, where he began to study conducting at the University of Michigan.

In Tehran, Loris Tjeknavorian's talents found huge demand, and he soon became the leading composer of film music in Iran, scoring some 30 scores for documentaries and short and popular feature films, many of them classics of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema.

In 1975 Loris Tjeknavorian relocated to London where he signed an exclusive conducting contract with the RCA recording company.

Loris Tjeknavorian's quickly established himself as the world's foremost interpreter of the symphonic music of Aram Khachaturian.

Loris Tjeknavorian's recording of the complete score of the ballet Gayaneh, the first and only of its kind, was hailed by the London critics as "first class" and "the most distinguished of the RCA recordings made by Loris Tjeknavorian".

Ticket sales for the event raised $500,000 that was sent to Armenia, where Loris Tjeknavorian relocated a few months later, having been appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Yerevan.

In 1991 Loris Tjeknavorian announced his intention to go on a pilgrimage walk from Yerevan to Gyumri in order to raise funds for rebuilding efforts.

Unfortunately, several months later the Soviet ruble was devalued and Loris Tjeknavorian was compelled to seek additional money from private sources.

Loris Tjeknavorian took over the huge communist party headquarters, which had been destroyed, and in seven years transformed it into the first Academy of Music and Arts in Gyumri.

Loris Tjeknavorian was instrumental in the 1991 campaign for Armenian independence.

Loris Tjeknavorian was especially influential in the adoption of the national anthem, "Mer Hayrenik", for which he rewrote the words for the first stanza.

Faithful to his vow that "the doors of culture must never be closed", Loris Tjeknavorian maintained weekly concerts at this time, including a regular series of spiritual music concerts every Saturday in anticipation of the 1700th anniversary of Christianity in Armenia.

In 2000, Loris Tjeknavorian resigned from the APO in order to devote more time to composing.

Loris Tjeknavorian conducted the Austrian premiere of his opera Rostam and Sohrab at the Festspielhaus in St Polten.

From 2009 to the present, Loris Tjeknavorian has continued to devote his time to composing, as well as painting and writing short stories.

Loris Tjeknavorian's paintings were exhibited at the Gallery Shirin in Tehran, Gallery Maryam Seyhoun in Los Angeles, and twice at the House of the Artists in Tehran.

Loris Tjeknavorian has published and presented a sarcastic book under the title of The Land of Asses which is a collection of satiric short stories.

On December 20,2008, Loris Tjeknavorian recorded Hafez Nazeri's The night of Angel with the London Symphony orchestra.

In 1989, Loris Tjeknavorian was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

However, in 2000, Loris Tjeknavorian resigned from this position in order to be able to devote more time to composing and conducting other orchestras.