Irina Kostanyan

Irina Kostanyan was born on January 6, 1930, in Yerevan into a family that loved and appreciated music. Her parents, Yevgenia and Nikolai Kostanyan fled from Baku in 1918 and settled in Yerevan. Irina began studying music at the age of five in a group of gifted children at the Yerevan State Conservatory.

Her first teacher was Yevgenia Khankalamyan, with whom she studied for a year. Further studies took place in the class of Professor Anna Mnatsakanyan. In 1937, Irina entered the Comprehensive School named after Alexander Pushkin, while continuing her musical studies, and in 1939, she moved to the third grade of the newly opened ten-year music school at the Yerevan Conservatory (now the Secondary Music School after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), where she successfully continued classes under the guidance of her favorite teacher Anna Mnatsakanyan.

After finishing the ten-year musical school in 1949, Kostanyan entered the Yerevan State Conservatory in the class of Professor Georgy Sarajev. In this class, as she said, she went through “a great school of piano playing”. The chamber ensemble classes were conducted by a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory (the class of Lev Oborin) Tamara Ilyukhina (who taught at the Yerevan State Conservatory in 1949-1965), and Irina learned accompanist skills at the Chamber Ensemble Department (the Department of Accompanist Training had not yet been founded) in the class of Marta Navasardyan (instrumental accompaniment) and the class of Yelena (Heghine) Ter-Ghevondyan (vocal accompaniment).

The years of study at the conservatory remain in the memory of Kostanyan: frequent performances in various concerts and student scientific conferences, where, mainly, works of modern Armenian composers were performed. Of the numerous performances of those years, there was the well-remembered performance of “Armenian Rhapsody” by Alexander Arutiunian and Arno Babajanyan at a student scientific conference in Baku. Young pianists Irina Kostanyan (1st part) and Erna Grigoryan (2nd part) became the first (after the authors) performers of this work.

Despite her high professionalism and the prospect of solo concert activity, Irina Kostanyan devoted herself to more “modest”, but extremely interesting work as an accompanist. And this is no coincidence. Since her school days, starting from the sixth grade, Irina accompanied cellist students from L. Grigoryan’s class at school open concerts, receiving great satisfaction from this activity. During her years of study at the conservatory, she attended with interest the classes of Professor Konstantin Saradzhev, where, together with Margarita Ter-Simonyan, she played the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven (№ 3, 4, 5) and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (№ 1, 3, 4, 5) in four hands.

Sometimes, at the request of Professor Konstantin Saradzhev, she replaced the ill accompanist of his class, Alexander Pirumov. Irina Kostanyan had the skill of free sight-reading (we may note her absolute pitch). After finishing the fourth year, while on vacation in Moscow at the end of August, Kostanyan was fortunate to play several works by Frédéric Chopin (Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20, Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38, Grande valse brillante in E-flat major) in the class of the first Soviet laureate (holder of “ Grand Prix”) of the Frédéric Chopin Competition in Poland, Professor Lev Oborin.

After her performance, Lev Oborin immediately, without discussing it, said: “I’m taking you to my class.” Unfortunately, neither the Yerevan State Conservatory nor Kostanyan’s parents gave their permission for relocation.

In 1950, Irina Kostanyan began her accompanist career, which lasted almost half a century. From 1950 to 1951, she worked as an accompanist for the State Capella of Armenia, whose artistic director and conductor was Aram Ter-Hovhannisyan, a demanding and strict musician.

Having graduated with honors from the Yerevan State Conservatory (1953), Kostanyan went to work at the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra as an accompanist (1953-1959). She played many concerts with various soloists, including cellist Medea Abrahamyan, violinists Hakob Vardanyan and Zoya Petrosyan, singers Edvard Baghdasaryan, Sergei Galstyan, Seda Kurbanyan, Avag Petrosyan, Anna Sarajyan, Armine Tutunjyan. Concerts took place both in Yerevan and in remote areas of Armenia. The performance with Zoya Petrosyan of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 (It is commonly known as the Kreutzer Sonata) remained a bright and joyful memory — that was one of her first performances as accompanist of the Armconcert.

Working as a pianist of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Irina Kostanyan had the enviable opportunity to perform with the artistic directors of the group, Michael Maluntsian and Ohan Durian, with guest conductors Kurt Sanderling, Abram Stasevich and others. As a member of the orchestra, Irina Kostanyan also participated in Aram Khachaturian’s 50th and 60th anniversary concerts (Symphony No. 2 in E minor was performed under the direction of the author).

On May 30, 1955, Irina Kostanyan, accompanied by the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra (conductor A. Voskanyan), performed Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16.

At the same time, Kostanyan taught piano at the Music School after Sayat-Nova (1953-1957). However, her busy work schedule at the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra did not allow her to continue her teaching career at that time. She returned to it ten years later, in 1967, as a teacher at the Yerevan State Conservatory.

In 1959, at the invitation of Professor K. Dombaev, Irina Kostanyan began working at the Yerevan State Conservatory as an accompanist in his class and the class of Hakob Vardanyan.

In 1967, at the All-Union selection in Moscow, Irina Kostanyan, together with violinist Poghos Mordzhikyan, was recommended for participation in the International Jacques Thibaud Violin Competition in Paris. Irina Kostanyan participated in the All-Union Violin Competition in Lviv (1977), where she performed with Vardges Boyajyan and Levon Kharatyan. The list of her performances can easily be continued.

It should be particularly noted that Irina Kostanyan spent many years of fruitful collaboration with her faithful life partner, the outstanding violinist, Honored Artist of Armenia, Professor Hakob Vardanyan. The performances of their duet were distinguished by rare ensemble coherence, a common performing concept while maintaining the bright individuality of each participant.

The creative union of Hakob (Yasha) Vardanyan and Irina Kostanyan has earned recognition from professionals and a wide audience both in Armenia and in the republics of the former USSR (they toured more than one hundred cities with solo concerts and as members of concert groups, some of them visited more than once).

People remember the performance of Aram Khachaturian’s work in the Small Hall of the Armenian Philharmonic (now the Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall) on September 19, 1965. That evening Hakob Vardanyan and Irina Kostanyan performed the “Song Poem” of the great composer.

In 1969, the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, People’s Artist of the USSR Pavel Lisitsian invited Vardanyan and I. Kostanyan to take part in a concert tour (fifteen concerts) in the cities of Transcaucasia and the Black Sea coast. In these concerts, Irina Kostanyan performed not only as an accompanist, accompanying Pavel Lisitsian and Hakob Vardanyan, but also with solo concerts, performing works by Frédéric Chopin (Waltzes, Scherzos, Ballades), Alexander Arutiunian (“Armenian Dance”) and Arno Babajanyan (“Vagharshapat Dance”).

Irina Kostanyan had also a long-term creative and fruitful collaboration with the People’s Artist of Armenia, cellist Medea Abrahamyan, with whom she performed concerts in Armenia and several cities in the USSR.

Over the years, Irina Kostanyan has performed with famous soloists: singers Tatevik Sazandaryan, Nar Hovhannisyan, Elvira Uzunyan, Arshavir Karapetyan, Edvard Bagdasaryan, Ellada Chakhoyan, Emma Papikyan, composer-canonist Khachatur Avetisyan, trumpeter Haykaz Mesiayan, violinists Zoya Petrosyan, Victor Khachatryan… There were performances with the famous Romanian touring singers Garbis Zobyan and Zenaida Pally.

Irina Kostanyan’s creative biography includes performances at the State Television and Radio of Armenia with Medea Abrahamyan, Hakob Vardanyan, and Nelly Karimyan.

Recordings of several works were made with Hakob Vardanyan. We should also note the recordings with trumpeter Haykaz Mesiayan and singer Nelly Karimyan.

In 1984, the All-Union Melodia Company released recordings of performances by Hakob Vardanyan and Irina Kostanyan (sixteen works in total, four of them with orchestral accompaniment).

An important part of Irina Kostanyan’s professional activity was teaching at the Yerevan State Conservatory in the Department of Accompanist Training (since 1967). In 1978, she completed an internship at the Accompanist Training Department of the Moscow State Conservatory. Irina Kostanyan trained more than one hundred and seventy students and more than ten graduate students. In 1988, she was awarded the title of Associate Professor, and in 1994 — Professor.

The musical traditions of the family of Hakob Vardanyan and Irina Kostanyan are continued by their son — cellist Nikoghayos Vardanyan, and their daughter — pianist Mariam. Their granddaughters are Maria Vardanyan (who graduated from the Piano Department of the conservatory, the accompanist training course in the class of Irina Kostanyan) and Sofya Vardanyan, who chose the profession of her grandfather, brilliant violinist Hakob Vardanyan.

In 2018, she successfully performed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia and now she is continuing her studies in Europe.