Artemi Ayvazyan

Who was Artemi Ayvazyan?

Artemi Ayvazyan was a Soviet Armenian composer, conductor, founder of the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra, and People's Artist of Armenia.

Ayvazyan was born in Baku to a musical family. Many famous musicians including Fyodor Shalyapin and Sergei Rachmaninoff visited the family apartment on Merkurievskaya Street. Ayvazyan graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatory in 1923 and studied at the studio of Alexander Spendiarian. He then attended the Moscow State Conservatory, completing his post-graduate research in 1935. In 1933 Ayvazyan won the First Prize of All-Soviet musical competition. In 1938 he founded the Armenian State Estrada Orchestra in Yerevan, one of the most popular in the USSR and the only one that survived during the stalinist repressions of the 1940s. Among his well-known songs are "Jan Yerevan", "Karine", "Get Arax" and "Im Karavan"