Honored Artist of Armenia, Professor of the Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas
Nina Saghyan was born on December 26, 1906, in Baku. Her parents met on a ship that was taking them to study in Germany. Her father, Grigoriy Saghyan, originally from Shushi (Artsakh), went to Europe to fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor: he received higher medical education in Berlin. Her mother, Sarah Yuzbashyan, was also born in Shushi. She had graduated from the women’s gymnasium in Tbilisi with a gold medal and decided to continue her studies in Germany to become a philologist. Sarah Saghyan translated Anna Seghers’ novel “The Dead Stay Young” from German into Armenian, the story “Gikor” by Hovhannes Tumanyan from Armenian into German, and stories by Stepan Zorian and others.
She graduated from the University of Jena (Germany) and played the piano well. Her mother instilled in her children a love of music and art and taught them the German language. Sarah Saghyan became the first teacher on the piano of his children — Armen, Nina, and Maro. Of the mother’s piano repertoire, especially memorable were the performances of pieces from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “The Seasons», Op. 37a piano cycle, as well as Edvard Grieg’s piano works.
In 1914, Sarah Saghyan and her children went to travel around Switzerland. From 1916 to 1918, the family lived in the provincial Georgian town of Akhaltsikhe, where the father worked as a military doctor. They lived peacefully and happily until 1918, after which everything changed: the father was sent to the Turkestan front, and the family moved to Astrakhan, where the mother began teaching piano at a music school. Hard times of hunger, cold, poverty, and epidemics came (Nina’s older brother, Armen, died of the Spanish flu at the age of 14). At the risk of their lives, on a fishing boat, in 1920 they reached Baku, where they were met by their completely greying father.
In 1920, the family moved to Tbilisi. Their relatives and friends moved there, fleeing from Baku and Shushi. The Saghyan family lived in Tbilisi for six years. The father worked in his profession, and the mother taught German and psychology at school. The house where they lived was opposite the house of Hovhannes Tumanyan. Sometimes, in the evenings, they gathered at a round table in the hospitable house of Hovhannes Tumanyan, and the poet expressed a desire to listen to something from young Nina’s repertoire. After her performance, he invariably expressed his satisfaction with it. Nina Saghyan remembered these memorable meetings for the rest of his life. In Tbilisi, she began her systematic studies at a music school.
In 1926, Nina Saghyan’s father was offered a job in Armenia. He became the head physician of the Dilijan tuberculosis sanatorium. The family finally settled in their homeland. Her mother was invited to teach German to graduate students at the Armenian Academy of Sciences.
In the same 1926, Nina Saghyan went to Moscow to enter the conservatory in the class of Professor Felix Blumenfeld, who, before the entrance exams, gave her private lessons for a certain time. But her right hand injury changed all the plans. Staying in Moscow for two years for the treatment, Nina Saghyan began to get acquainted with the world of art in the capital and attended performances at the «Bolshoi» and «Maly» theatres, museums, exhibitions, and art galleries. She admired the art of Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Alexander Tairov.
In 1928, without any hope for a good result from the treatment of her hand, Saghyan returned to Yerevan and entered the chemistry department of the State University. In 1929, she resumed her studies at the Yerevan State Conservatory, first under the guidance of Olga Babasyan, then in the class of Anna Mnatsakanyan. During her studies, Saghyan began working as an accompanist in vocal and string classes, in particular, in the violin class of Dmitry Lekger.
Nina graduated from the Yerevan State Conservatory in 1932 (the first class of pianists). After graduation, she was sent to Moscow by the People’s Commissariat of Education of Armenia to improve her skills in the field of chamber ensemble and accompanist art.
She completed her internship in the classes of the famous organist and ensemble player Alexander Goedicke, as well as in the vocal classes of Anatoly Dolivo and Maria Mirzoeva. The lessons turned out to be very fruitful for the future activities of the pianist.
After returning to Yerevan, Nina Saghyan was sent to work as a pianist-accompanist at the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (which opened in 1933), where she worked until 1944.
The creative collaboration with Haykanoush Danielyan continued throughout the subsequent years of Nina Saghyan’s activity at the opera house, where she worked with full dedication, honing her accompanist art and practical skills in working with vocalists, skillfully helping young talented singers Tatevik Sazandaryan, Pavel Lisitsian, and many other performers.
In 1944, Tatevik Sazandaryan gave a solo concert in the hall of the Opera House, the program of which included romances and songs by Franz Liszt, Edvard Grieg, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In 1945, a concert was held in memory of Romanos Melikian (on the 10th anniversary of his death).
In 1946, as an accompanist, she participated in the first Republican vocal competition, dedicated to the works of Komitas. Fifteen singers participated in the competition (including T. Sazandaryan, A. Ter-Abramyan, Sh. Talyan).
In 1944, Nina Saghyan began to teach at the Yerevan State Conservatory. Until 1950 she taught at the General Piano Department, later she moved to the Vocal Department as the head of the chamber singing class (until 1969). During those years, famous artists Angela Harutyunyan, Gohar Galachyan, Arshavir Karapetyan, Lusine Zakaryan, Robert Baburyan, Izabella Aydinyan, Nina Khachatryan, and others graduated from Nina Saghyan’s chamber singing class.
In 1970-1987, at the newly created Department of Accompanist Training, Nina Saghyan instilled in students a refined taste and an understanding of the stylistic features of the performed works and shared her rich skills and secrets of accompanist performance. That was the first and critical period in the formation of the new educational department of the conservatory, the first teachers of which were Yelena (Heghine) Ter-Ghevondyan (head of the department), Marta Navasardyan, and Nina Saghyan.
In 1967, Nina Grigorievna Sagiyan was confirmed with the rank of Associate Professor, and in 1981 — Professor. Her archive contains characteristics signed by K.Saradzhev, Z.Dolukhanova, P.Lisitsian, M.Tavrizian, Yu.Tyulin (Leningrad: now St.Petersburg), Y.Milshtein (Moscow), G.Tigranov, E.Mirzoyan, and other famous artistic people.
Since 1951, Nina Saghyan systematically made presentations on Armenian vocalists, and Soviet and Western European composers, after which she performed their works in an ensemble with singers. She wrote thirty-two methodological works.
In 1967, Nina Saghyan was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Armenia, and in 1973, was awarded a Certificate of Honor from the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Armenia (her awards also included numerous commendations and medals).
Conductor Gevork Budaghyan and Nina Saghyan had two children. Their son chose the profession of musicologist. Professor Armen Budaghyan is an Honored Artist of Armenia. Their daughter Alma Budaghyan is a philologist. Armen Budaghyan’s children are also musicians. They work abroad (the son, violinist Gevork Budaghyan — in Germany, and the daughter, pianist Anna Budaghyan-Vanesyan — in Canada).