Diran Alexanian ( hy, Տիրան Ալեքսանեան) (April 12, 1881,
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
– 1954,
Chamonix, France
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...
) was an
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
n
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...
teacher and one of the world's greatest virtuoso cellists.
Early life
He started his studies in music under the supervision of his maternal uncle Hovannes Aznavour. He continued studying the cello with Guatelli, an Italian musician based in Constantinople. At age 15, in 1895, despite his parents' objections, moved to Germany and became a pupil of
Friedrich Grützmacher
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Grützmacher (1 March 1832 – 23 February 1903) was a noted German cellist and composer in the second half of the 19th century. He composed mostly for cello (including several concertos and many technical studies), but a ...
at the
Dresden Conservatory in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
,and through him, meets
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
ist
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of t ...
as well as
Johannes Brahms and begins to play in his
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
. At a young age he was an accomplished
cellist, performing at age seventeen the solo part of
Richard Strauss's ''
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...
''.
At age twenty, Alexanian settled in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where he met
Pablo Casals. Casals had seen Alexanian perform, and noticed that Alexanian's
fingering was in line with his new way of playing the cello. They got to know one another, finding they had similar views on general
technique and interpretation of music.
In 1921, Alexanian became the assistant to Casals at the
École Normale de Musique (founded in 1919 by
Alfred Cortot and , where Casals was a teacher, as well as
Jacques Thibaud
Jacques Thibaud (; 27 September 18801 September 1953) was a French violinist.
Biography
Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won th ...
. There, he and Casals put their revolutionary ideas into practice. Students from around the world came to study with him at this time, including
Gabriel Cusson
Gabriel Cusson (2 April 1903, Roxton Pond, Quebec - 18 Apr 1972, Montreal) was a Canadian composer and music educator. As a composer, his music was heavily influenced by the style of early 20th-century French composers. Most of his work remains u ...
,
Maurice Eisenberg Maurice Eisenberg (February 24, 1900 - December 13, 1972) was a cellist, both performer and teacher.
Biography
Born in Königsberg in a family of a cantor, he was brought to the United States when he was two years old as his parents moved there ...
,
Antonio Janigro,
Gregor Piatigorsky
Gregor Piatigorsky (, ''Grigoriy Pavlovich Pyatigorskiy''; August 6, 1976) was a Russian Empire-born American cellist.
Biography
Early life
Gregor Piatigorsky was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. As a child, he ...
,
Hidayat Inayat Khan
Hidayat Inayat Khan ( ur, ; 6 August 1917 – 12 September 2016) was a British-French classical composer, conductor and Representative-General of the Inayati Order.
Biography
Hidayat was born in London to Sufi Master Inayat Khan and Pirani Am ...
,
Pierre Fournier
Pierre Léon Marie Fournier (24 June 19068 January 1986) was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists" on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound.
Biography
He was born in Paris, the son of a French Army gen ...
,
Rodica Sutzu
Rodica Lucia Sutzu (15 April 1913 - 8 May 1979) was a Romanian composer and pianist who studied with Nadia Boulanger and served as the Romanian Radio piano soloist for almost 20 years.
Sutzu was born in Iași to Elena Jules Cazaban and Rudolf Sut ...
, and
Emmanuel Feuermann. During his tenure at the school, Alexanian published his 1922 book on cello technique, ''Traite Theorique et Pratique du Violoncelle'', as well as his famous edition of the
Bach Suites in 1929.
In a concert at the École 1933 he premiered
Frederick Jacobi
Frederick Jacobi (May 4, 1891 – October 24, 1952) was a Jewish-American composer and teacher. His works include symphonies, concerti, chamber music, works for solo piano and for solo organ, lieder, and one opera.
He taught at Juilliard School ...
's Concerto (Three Psalms) for Cello and Orchestra (which Jacobi had dedicated to Alexanian), under conductor
Alfred Cortot.
Alexanian abandoned his position at the École in 1937, and moved to the United States. There he taught both at the
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...
in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and the
Manhattan School of Music in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. There his students included
Bernard Greenhouse,
David Soyer,
George Ricci,
Raya Garbousova
Raya Garbousova (russian: Ра́я Га́рбузова; September 25, 1909Alternative dates appear in the literature. The ''New Grove'' has September 25, 1906, and ''Baker's Dictionary'' has October 10, 1905. Raya Garbousova herself claimed to ...
,
David Wells
David Lee Wells (born May 20, 1963) is an American former baseball pitcher who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine teams, most notably the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Nicknamed "Boomer", Wells was considered on ...
, and
Mischa Schneider.
Composing
Diran Alexanian's first attempts at composing during the course of his studies in Germany were his choral works written for the choir of the Protestant church. As a composer, he is best known for writing a number of transcripts based on ancient songs - sacred or profane. His «Little Armenian Suite» (1919) composed for chamber orchestra, includes instrumental versions of the liturgical piece «Khorurt khorin» and profane chants «Oror», «Alaguiaz» and «Hovarek» («The Deep Mystery», «Lullaby», «Alaguiaz Mountain» and «Given the Freshness»).
This Suite was performed for the first time at a gala in honor of the famous Armenian writer and journalist Arshak Chobanian at Paris's Gaveau concert hall.
There are also well-known arrangements of popular pieces for strings, especially for the cello.
His works include «Two Poems», by Camille Mauclair, for voice and piano, 1919, Paris, Mathot edition,
«Soir, les roses dans le coupe», after Albert Samain's poem, for voice and piano, 1918, Paris, Ricordi edition,
Qintet for piano and strings,
Two pieces, «Aria» and «Pastoral» for cello and piano from the «Christmas oratorio» by J.S. Bach, 1904, Paris,
«Lullaby» for cello and piano, 1923, Paris.
Death
Diran Alexanian died in France in 1954, at the age of 73, during his European tour.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexanian, Diran
1881 births
1954 deaths
Armenian cellists
Musicians from the Ottoman Empire
Musicians from Istanbul
French cellists
French music educators
American cellists
Cello pedagogues
Academics of the École Normale de Musique de Paris
Peabody Institute faculty
Manhattan School of Music faculty
Armenians from the Ottoman Empire
Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to France
French emigrants to the United States
20th-century cellists