Yevgenia Khankalamyan

With an excellent recommendation from Tiflis (Tbilisi) professors L. Truskovsky, V. Wilshau, and I. Iceberg began to work in Yerevan Yevgenia Khankalamyan, who studied with Aloisa Mizandari at the Tiflis (Tbilisi) Academy and graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class of S.A. Malozemov.

Domineering, and demanding, Yevgenia Khankalamyan was an adherent of authoritarian pedagogy, when the instructions of the teacher were strictly receptive to the students. In the pedagogical repertoire of Yelena Khankalamyan paid special attention to the technical development of students. In compulsory work, her pupils are engaged in etudes, exercises, scales, and arpeggios. This was manifested in her requirements when setting her hands (high finger lift with a low hand). It was convenient for the students to play in this position. Of course, it was very difficult to endure Yevgenia Khankalamyan’s «hard» regime, but whoever acquired fluent, strong, and tenacious fingers, so necessary for the profession of a pianist.

Yevgenia Khankalamyan was especially proud of her best students. The presence among them is Anna Ambakumyan, later a prominent Armenian pianist and professor at the Yerevan Conservatory. After finishing her studies in Yerevan, Ambakumyan studied at the Moscow Conservatory and graduate school with Konstantin Igumnov and Lev Oborin. In the class of Yevgenia Khankalamyan also studied Valentin Izrailov, Ofelia Petrosyan, Galina Silchenko, and Aida Melik-Haykazyan.