Film on Tigran Mansurian to be screened at Brand Library in Glendale

PanARMENIAN.Net - On April 7, 2011 at 7:00pm, the Brand Library in Glendale will be screening the film Tigran Mansurian: Confessing with Music by independent filmmaker Hayk Hambartsum.

The subject of the film, the internationally acclaimed Armenian composer, will be our special guest, taking part in a Q&A session following the screening. Admission is free and a reception will follow the event, Glendale Arts reported.

Tigran Mansurian was born in Beirut in 1939. In 1947 his family moved to Armenia, finally settling in the capital Yerevan in 1956. Mansurian studied at the Yerevan Music Academy and completed his PhD at the Komitas State Conservatory where he later taught contemporary music analysis. In a short time he became one of Armenia's leading composers, establishing strong creative relationships with international performers and composers such as Valentin Silvestrov, Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, André Volkonsky and Edison Denisov as well as Kim Kashkashian, Jan Garbarek, and the Hilliard Ensemble. Mansurian was the rector of the Komitas Conservatory in the 1990s. He has recently retired as an administrator and teacher, and concentrates exclusively on composition.

Mansurian's musical style is characterized mainly by the organic synthesis of ancient Armenian musical traditions and contemporary European composition methods. His oeuvre comprises orchestral works, seven concerti for strings and orchestra, sonatas for cello and piano, three string quartets, madrigals, chamber music and works for solo instruments.