Yakov Zargaryan

(1925-2020)

Honored Teacher of Armenia, Professor of the Yerevan State Conservatory after Komitas.

Yakov Zargaryan was born on December 5, 1925, in Yerevan, in the family of one of the city’s first car drivers, Sergei Zargaryan (“Doctor of the Machine,” as they called him) and Emma Shahbazyan-Zargaryan, who devoted herself to raising three sons.

In 1933, Yasha (Yakov) was admitted to the Alexander Spendiaryan Music School in the class of the famous teacher Yevgenia Khosrovyan. Since childhood, he showed extraordinary abilities in playing the piano, and in May 1935, he became the youngest participant (he was nine years old) of the First Republican Olympiad, in which future famous musicians (Karen Kostanyan, Tanya Hayrapetyan, Liya Shamkhoryan, and others) took part.

Little Yasha remembered the year 1937, when the outstanding pianist, and laureate of international competitions, Yakov Flier, again came to Yerevan to give concerts. He auditioned three of the best pianists of the school, including Yasha. Yasha played one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sonatas and two etudes. Yakov Flier liked and the communication between twelve-year-old Yasha and the famous pianist continued after the performance. The boy and Yakov Flier went to the Small Concert Hall of the Armenian Philharmonic (now Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall), and on the way, a “friendly conversation” between the two Yakovs began. Flier, saying goodbye and shaking hands with his young namesake, invited him, after finishing his studies in Yerevan, to continue his studies in his class in Moscow. After that, Yasha Zargaryan decided to become a pianist. Looking ahead, we may note that fate brought them together twice more, but the close contact developed later, at the Gorky Conservatory.

In 1940, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a concert competition was held in Yerevan with the participation of young musicians. And Yasha again managed to stand out among others. For good studies and excellent performance, he received music sheets as a gift (piano works by Anatoly Lyadov).

After completing seven years of school, Yasha entered the Romanos Melikian Music College in the class of the famous pianist, a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory Robert Andreasian. Robert Andreasian was not present at the entrance exams, but he expressed a desire to re-audition those who aspired to get into his class (eleven out of twelve applicants). He chose two, and one turned out to be Yasha Zargaryan.

Yakov Zargaryan studied with Robert Andreasian for two years. At the end of 1942, during the most difficult period of the Great Patriotic War, seventeen-year-old Yasha volunteered to join the army in his third year of music school. At first, in the 21st Separate Training Tank Regiment, he learned to become a tanker. Having learned that he was a musician, the commanders immediately invited him to work with the orchestra of the same regiment. Here the young man stayed for almost seven and a half years — until April 1950. He played the baritone and trombone, the accordion, and sometimes the piano.

In January 1950, still in the army, but knowing about imminent demobilization, Zargaryan passed the exams (he performed the same with which he graduated from the second year of the music school in Yerevan) and was enrolled in the fourth year of the North Ossetian Music College in Ordzhonikidze, where his military unit was stationed. The student sergeant graduated from college six months later with the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 by Camille Saint-Saëns, performing it with the Ordzhonikidze Symphony Orchestra (conductor V. Gorshkov). We should note that for the first time, students of this school played with an orchestra. In the first section, the first parts of the piano concertos were performed, and in the second, Zargaryan performed all three parts of the concert alone.

Yasha Zargaryan and five other students were sent to Saratov, where, in July 1950, the First All-Russian review of music schools took place. On July 11, the final concert of the Review took place. It was concluded by Yakov Zargaryan, who performed with the orchestra the 2nd and 3rd parts of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22 by Camille Saint-Saëns. The chairman of the jury was the rector of the Gorky Conservatory Grigori Dombaev. After Yasha Zargaryan’s performance, in a conversation, Grigori Dombaev learned about his desire to study at the Moscow State Conservatory in the class of Yakov Flier and invited him to come and take the entrance exams to the Gorky Conservatory.

He promised the young pianist that he would study in his idol’s class. Having passed the exams in three rounds, Yakov Zargaryan, as the strongest applicant, was immediately enrolled in the second year of the conservatory. Grigori Dombaev kept his promise: Yakov Flier was invited and taught at the Gorky Conservatory for a year (during this year Zargaryan studied Preludes and Fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach, etudes by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, S.125, Frédéric Chopin’s several Mazurkas and Fantaisie in F minor, op. 49, two “Poems” by Alexander Scriabin, a dozen preludes, and «Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini», Op. 43 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano works from Op.32 by Sergei Prokofiev, etc.).

Yakov Flier gave him his photo with the inscription: “To my talented student Yasha Zargaryan, 1951.”

Yakov Flier was replaced by Grigory Ginzburg (for two years), and Zargaryan’s last year of study took place under the guidance of Yakov Zak.

Over two academic years, the Gorky Conservatory held three intra-conservatory competitions for the best performance of piano works by Soviet and Russian composers and long classical works. In all three competitions, Zargaryan was awarded the First prize.

During his studies, Yasha Zargaryan was recognized as the best student and the only one who was awarded a Stalin scholarship (by the way, exceeding the salary of his teachers).

Studying at the Gorky Conservatory, Yakov Zargaryan began working as an accompanist.

In 1954, after brilliantly graduating from the Gorky Conservatory, Yakov Zargaryan returned to Yerevan and began working at the Music College after Romanos Melikian, and a month later, from October — at the Tchaikovsky Secondary Music School (he worked there from 1954 till 1980). Among his students were future composers and pianists Artem Kazaryan and Arthur Aharonyan (France), pianists Armen Aharonyan (USA), Marina Abrahamyan (Honored Artist of Armenia), and Harutyun Papazyan.

In 1960, in the Great Concert Hall of the Armenian Philharmonic (Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall), Yakov Zargaryan performed Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor, Op. 23 with the State Symphony Orchestra of Armenia (guest conductor — Gavriil Yudin).

In February 1962, for the first time in Yerevan, Yakov Zargaryan with the same orchestra performed “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin (Aram Khchaturian Concert Hall).

In 1967, Yakov Zargaryan received the title of Honored Teacher of Armenia.

From 1961-1972, he was a soloist and pianist-accompanist at the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

In 1966-1970, with a group of artists from the Opera and Drama Theaters of Yerevan, Yakov Zargaryan, as a soloist and accompanist, participated in a tour of thirty-three cities in Georgia (Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Gori) and the Krasnodar Territory (Novorossiysk, Sochi, Krasnodar). He accompanied singers, dancers, and readers, among whom were famous ballet soloists V. Borisov, B. Hovnanyan, N. Mehrabyan, B. Khudinyan, dancers (folk dances) A. Mikaelyan and N. Shkhyan, singers I. Aydinyan, G. Galachyan, S. Davtyan, V. Perchyan, readers A. Selimkhanov, N. Egorova and others.

In 1973, Yakov Zargaryan visited Italy with a group of artists from the republics of the USSR (Armenia was represented by composer Martin Vardazaryan and teacher-violinist P. Haykazyan).

Yakov Zargaryan taught at the Komitas Yerevan State Conservatory in the Department of Special Piano (1963-1968 and 1988-2015). He was the dean of the faculty of foreign students (since 1989), and later a consultant (2007-2015).

Yakov Zargaryan received the title of Associate Professor in 1971, and in 1993 he was assigned as Professor.

From 1967 to 1977 he was the head of the Piano Department and, at the same time, in 1969-1971, the dean of the Musical-Pedagogical Faculty of the Armenian Pedagogical Institute after Khachatur Abovian.

Yakov Zargaryan is the author of four published methodological works: “Notes on Piano Pedagogy” (1986), “On Some Patterns of Phrasing Determined by the Forms of Musical Constructions and Metrorhythmic Features of the Text” (1989), “Rhythmic Aspect of Phrasing” (1990), “On Posture of the Pianist” (1993) and “Staccato; Some Problems of Reading, Comprehension and Performance.” All these works are now collected in one publication “Pianism. The Beginning of the Journey” (Yerevan, 1998).

Yakov Zargaryan has always been involved in active musical and social activities. He was a member of the jury of many competitions and shows, including the first three Republican competitions named after Arno Babajanyan. In 1978-1990, Zargaryan collaborated with the Methodological Cabinet of the Ministry of Culture of Armenia.

Zargaryan published about sixty articles, reviews, and literary works in newspapers and magazines. Yakov Zargaryan entered the “Book of Records of Armenia”, having collected, since 1963, 1073 eggs painted by famous Armenians (starting with Martiros Saryan, Minas Avetisyan, Dmitry Nalbandyan, Valentin Podpomogov, Hovsep Karalian, Aleksandr Bazhbeuk-Melikov, and others) and foreign artists from forty-eight countries (933 authors). In 2015, the exhibition was opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Yerevan.

His awards: nine medals (war years), a Certificate of Honor from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR (1972), a decoration from the USSR Ministry of Higher Education “For Excellent Success in Work” and other Gratitudes. In 2005, the Russian-Armenian Slavic University awarded him the title “Person of the Year”.

In 2015, on the 90th anniversary of Yakov Zargaryan, the Ministry of Culture of Armenia awarded the Jubilarian with a Gold Medal.

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