Vache Sharafyan

 Composer

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http://sharafyan.tripod.com

Vache Sharafyan born in 1966 in Yerevan, Graduated with distinction from the Yerevan State Conservatory where received Post-Graduate education in composition, class of Prof. E. Mirzoyan. In 1992-96 was professor of sacred music at Theological Armenian Seminary in Jerusalem, where authored a Book of Chants for Holy Sepulchre.  

Sharafyan is author of opera “King Abgar”, a number of chambers, symphonic, choral, vocal compositions, which were commissioned/performed worldwide by such artists as Yo-Yo Ma & Silk Road Project ensemble, Yuri Bashmet & Moscow Soloists orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Gil Rose, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Irkutsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Mansfield Symphony, Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Anne Akiko Meyers, Movses Pogossian, Colin Jacobsen, Johnny Gandelsman, Shirly Laub, Jagdish Mistry, cellists Suren Bagratuni, Alexander Chaushian, Aram Talalyan, Mario Brunello, Peter Stumpf, Edward Arron, Erik Jacobsen, Boris Andrianov,  Rupert Thompson, Marta Bagratuni, pianists Andrew Armstrong, Joel Fan, Eric Stumacher, Ksenia Bashmet, Artur Avanesov, saxophonists James Houlik, John Sampen, Koryun Asatryan, violists Maxim Novikov, Bryan Dembow, Nicolas Cords, Nils Moenkemeyer, Amsterdam Atlas Ensemble, Zerafin ensemble, percussionist Kunico Kato, Hover chamber choir, Apple Hill Chamber Players, Baird Trio, Pittsburgh Trio, MATA Ensemble, singers Tony Arnold, Theo Bleckmann, Daniel Plaster, Scott Ramsay, PNME, Kevin Noe, Robin Fountain, Karen Durgaryan, Dinuk Wijeratne, Eduard Topchjan, Robert Franz, Ed Spanjaard, Aram Gharabekian, Vahan Mardirossian, “Soli Deo Gloria”, Xenia ensemble, Metropolitan Artists in Concert (New York), Avalon String Quartet, Komitas String Quartet, Quintette à vent de Marseille, among many others. 

Sharafyan’s compositions were performed in the most prestigious venues in Armenia, USA (including Carnegie Hall -Stern, Weill and Zankel auditoriums, Chicago Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston, Benaroya Hall), Italy, Israel, Russia (including Moscow Conservatory Grand Hall), France (Theatre du Chatelet), Canada, Ukraine, Georgia, Germany (including Cologne and Berlin philharmonic halls), Austria, Belgium, Holland (including Muziekgebouw, Consertgebouw), Thailand, Lebanon, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, Scotland, Ireland, England, Iceland, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus and Sweden. 

Publishers: G. SCHIRMER, Editions-BIM (Switzerland).

CDs released on “Traditional Crossroads” New York, “Albany Records” New York, “BIS Records” Sweden.

Guest professor at UCLA in 2011.

REVIEWS

The New York Times

By STEVE SMITH,  December 19, 2011 (after the concert at Metropolitan Museum of Arts)

.... And all of the string players confidently handled unconventional intonation in Mr. Sharafyan’s “Adumbrations of the Peacock,” a stark, mysterious and ultimately majestic concatenation of broken-bell piano chords, tremulous melodies and quivering textures.

THE BOSTON GLOBE, by Matthew Guerrieri Globe Correspondent / May 27, 2008. By contrast, Vache Sharafyan's "Sinfonia No. 2 un poco concertante," a BMOP commission and world premiere, takes that essence as its starting point. Melodies erupt into dense, slow-shifting harmonic clouds; a repetitive figure builds into crashing waves of multitudinous, Ivesian dissonance. A solo duduk, the Armenian folk oboe (pre-recorded for this concert), spins periodic arabesques, the instrument's microtonal inflections transmuted in the orchestra. Sharafyan creates complex, deliberate, ultimately captivating grandeur - artistic director Gil Rose led a terrific, vivid performance.

TheSTRAD , by JOANNE TALBOT; May 2012

...use of harmonic clusters colors Vache Sharafyan's Suite, which with its ingenious allusions to the harmonic patterns and dance forms of the Baroque travels through a kaleidoscope of iridescent timbres...

Equally enthralling is Sharafyan's arrangement of Komitas's Krunk (Crane) for duduk, piano and cello. As in the Suite, tonally conventional elements co-exist with the oscillating pitches and clusters of Sharafyan's harmonic language to magical effect.

   David Harrington (Kronos Quartet) wrote: “I find him (Sharafyan) to be a fascinating and expressive composer whose music unites the ancient with the new and mysterious inner worlds with boldly tangible elements...”

Chicago Tribune (12,18,02) wrote about The Silk Road Ensemble at Chicago Orchestra Hall:  "...But the most wonderful piece on the program was "The Sun, the Wine, and the Wind of Time" (1998) by the Armenian composer Vache Sharafyan. The score derived much of its ineffable sadness from the duduk, an oboe-like instrument whose quivery, throaty sounds were framed by piano (Joel Fan), violin (Colin Jacobsen) and cello (Yo-Yo Ma). The seamless evolution of moods and textures—from soft, somber lines made up of pained intervals, to more violent outbursts, back to mournful lines—made it entirely absorbing to the ear and mind..."

Pittsburgh Live   By Mark Kanny / TRIBUNE-REVIEW CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC / Monday, August 5, 2002  Vache Sharafyan’s "The Four Seasons" was the significant world premiere, including Armenian poetry as a prelude to each of the four movements… Sharafyan’s language includes remarkable solo writing … The composer is not afraid of dissonance, and the furious intensity he achieves serves clear narrative intent, including real satisfaction. 

Pittsburgh Post Gazette (08, 05, 02): …The evening's gem, though, was the Sharafyan. Without overtly referencing Vivaldi, this "Four Seasons" uses the calendar year as a metaphor for a circle of life...m (Sharafyan) to be a fascinating and expressive composer whose music unites the ancient with the new and mysterious inner worlds with boldly tangible elements...”

  SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOCE /   April 30, 2002, Robert Commanday, Senior Editor       The issue with a cross-cultural composition is one of criteria. By what standard and in what aesthetic is the work to be perceived? It must be the product of a real and gifted composer, strong enough a composition to establish its own measure, as Takemitsu’s pieces are. To an extent, Vache Sharafyan’s The Sun, the Wine, and the Wind of Time (from Armenia, 1998) created its own time and space. The western tradition was reflected in its overall song-form structure and writing for piano, violin and cello.

Contacts: sharafyanv@yahoo.com

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