Komitas Vardapet
1869 - 1935
We may know Komitas by name, but do we really know who he was? Komitas, whose original name was Soghomon Gevorki Soghomonyan, was an Armenian priest, composer, choir leader, singer, music ethnologist, music educator, and musicologist. He was one of the many brilliant Armenians who were arrested and deported starting in 1915 by the Turkish government. Even though he survived the ordeal due to the intervention of many of his influential friends, the horrors that he witnessed forever impacted his soul. Komitas died in 1935, having spent the last twenty years of his life at Villejuif, a suburban sanatorium in Paris.
Did you know?
In 1906 after one of the concertos, the outstanding French composer Claude Debussy exclaimed excitedly: “Brilliant father Komitas! I bow before your musical genius!”
If you would like to learn more, here are some suggested sources:
Komitas Virtual Museum (ENG,ARM,RUS)
Komitas on WikiPedia
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