Biography
Aram Khachaturyan was born in 1903 in Tiflis, Russian Empire (now Tbilisi, Georgia), as the fourth son in a modest Armenian family. His father, a bookbinder and craftsman, recognized his son's musical talent and acquired a used piano for him, though he could not afford a music teacher. Khachaturyan taught himself until age 19, when he moved to Moscow to join his brother, a theater director. He studied physics and mathematics at Moscow University for a year before entering the Gnesin School of Music in 1922. At the entrance exam, upon seeing a cello, he said, "I want to learn to play this big violin." He studied cello under Mikhail Gnesin and graduated with honors from the Gnesin School in 1929 and from the Moscow Conservatory in 1934, where he studied composition with Nikolai Miaskovsky. Sergei Prokofiev helped promote Khachaturyan's music in Europe, and his piano trio and First Piano Concerto (1936) brought him international recognition.
His ballet "Gayane" (1942), featuring the famous "Sabre Dance," became an international sensation. However, his second ballet, "Spartacus," composed in 1945, was not performed for 11 years. Khachaturyan was among Soviet artists and intellectuals targeted by official criticism of culture under Joseph Stalin in the 1940s and 1950s. His music was condemned as "formalistic." Along with Sergei Prokofiev, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, and other prominent Soviet intellectuals, Khachaturyan faced official denunciation. It was only in December 1956 that "Spartacus" premiered at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, soon gaining international acclaim. The "Adagio" from "Spartacus" and the "Sabre Dance" from "Gayane" became Khachaturyan’s signature pieces. He also composed a celebrated score for "Masquerade," a drama by Mikhail Lermontov. Khachaturyan received numerous Soviet and international awards. As a professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory, he encouraged innovative and intercultural approaches to music education. Proud of his Armenian heritage, he incorporated elements of world music and various Oriental influences into his compositions. Aram Khachaturyan died in Moscow in 1978 and was buried in Armenia.
