Hayg Boyadjian (born 1938) is an American composer of classical music whose work includes art song, chamber music and symphonies. Solo recordings of his compositions have been released by Opus One and Albany Records.[1]
Boyadjian was born in Paris to Armenian parents and grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina where the family had emigrated when he was a child. He began his musical studies at the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Buenos Aires before emigrating to the United States in 1958. He settled in Lexington, Massachusetts and continued his musical studies as a special student at the New England Conservatory and later at Brandeis University. In 1980 he received a fellowship to the MacDowell Colony. In 1991 he was the first American composer to be invited by the government of the newly independent Armenia to visit the country for rehearsals and performances of his chamber music. He has since visited the country several times for performances of his works. His piano concerto received its world premiere in 2016 in Yerevan to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Armenia's independence.[2][3][4]
Boyadjian is an active amateur astronomer and a member of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston. Several of his works, including Perseus (written for flautist Doriot Anthony Dwyer) and Cassiopeia (written for clarinetist Jonathan Cohler), are inspired by constellations. The shape of the notes on the stave for the work's principal motif reflects the shape of the constellation itself.[5][6]
References
edit- ^ Rayfield, Barnaby (March 2011). "Review: Boyadjian: Cassiopeia. Mi Tango. Perseus. De Profundis. Vientos. Pleiades". Fanfare. Retrieved 20 January 2017 (subscription required).
- ^ The Armenian Mirror-Spectator (25 August 2016). "Music by Hayg Boyadjian to Be Performed in Belgium, Armenia". Retrieved 20 January 2017.
- ^ Blotner, Linda Solow (ed.) (1983). The Boston Composers Project: A Bibliography of Contemporary Music, pp. 65–68. MIT Press. ISBN 0262021986
- ^ Dyer, Richard (9 November 1990). "Hutchins Turns Down BSO". Boston Globe. Retrieved 20 January 2017 (subscription required).
- ^ Fraknoi, Andrew (August 2016). "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Astronomy: The Music of the Spheres (Part 2)". Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, Issue 20, p. 15. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
- ^ Boyadjian, Hayg (2010). Liner Notes: Vientos. Albany Records. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
External links
edit- Hayg Boyadjian on AllMusic
- Vartabedian, Tom (21 February 2012). "Boyadjian Looks for Solidarity, Solace at Genocide Centennial". Armenian Weekly (interview)
 | This article about an American composer born in the 20th century is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |