Anahid Ajemian
Anahid Marguerite Ajemian | |
---|---|
Born | Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States | January 26, 1924
Died | June 13, 2016 Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States | (aged 92)
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instruments | Violin |
Associated acts | Maro Ajemian, The Composers Quartet |
Anahid Marguerite Ajemian (January 26, 1924 – June 13, 2016)[1] was an American violinist of Armenian descent. Her career in contemporary music began from her desire to help young composers of her generation get their compositions performed.[2] Additionally, she enjoyed performing the music of established contemporary performers. She included these composers with the traditional repertoire in her performances.
Early life and education[]
Ajemian was born in Manhattan on January 26, 1924, to Armenian immigrant parents. Her father was a physician and her mother a pianist.[1] She began her music studies early at the Institute of Musical Art, which later merged with the Juilliard School. After graduating from the Lincoln School, Ajemian continued her education at the Juilliard School, studying violin with Édouard Dethier and chamber music with and , and played in the Juilliard orchestra under Albert Stoessel and .
Musical career[]
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In 1946, while still a student of Édouard Dethier at the Juilliard Graduate School of Music, Ajemian won the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Award. In the same year, she made her debut at Town Hall and received the Distinguished Achievement Medal from Mademoiselle magazine as the . Among the many honors that have followed, the Order of St. James appointed her a Knight of Malta for her lifelong support of contemporary classical music.
With her pianist sister Maro Ajemian, she performed in Europe, Canada and throughout the United States in a wide repertoire including works which were written for them by such distinguished composers as John Cage, Henry Cowell, Alan Hovhaness, Ernst Krenek, Lou Harrison, Wallingford Riegger, Carlos Surinach, and Ben Weber. Together and separately, the Ajemian sisters recorded extensively for Columbia, RCA Victor, MGM and Composers Records, Inc. They were the first musicians to receive the Laurel Leaf Award of the Composers Alliance for Distinguished Service to American Music.
Ajemian and her sister were equally known for their interpretations of the standard classical repertoire. A unique feature of the many television programs they taped for NBC’s Recital Hall and the National Educational Television Network was their series of programs comprising the complete cycle of all ten Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano. They appeared as soloists under the batons of Dimitri Mitropoulos, Leopold Stokowski and Izler Solomon, and recorded with the latter two.
Also during the 1940s, Ajemian co-founded the New York City-based organization Friends of Armenian Music Committee, which did much to launch the career of fellow Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness, via a series of well-received New York concerts of his music. These concerts were repeated in Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Ajemian and her husband, George Avakian, started Music for Moderns, a Town Hall, in 1957.[citation needed]
In the mid-sixties, Ajemian and her fellow violinist founded the Composers String Quartet[1] at the suggestion of Gunther Schuller, which quickly earned an international reputation and toured in more than 26 countries, including the Soviet Union, India, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia and China. The Composers String Quartet recorded extensively for the Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch Records, Composers Recordings, Inc. and Columbia Records among many others. The Quartet’s 1970 recording of Elliott Carter’s "First and Second Quartets" was honored by a Grammy nomination, received “Stereo Review’s “Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year” Award, and was acclaimed by High Fidelity as “Best Quartet of the Year” and one of the “Fifty Greatest Albums of the Decade.” Time magazine called it “an astonishingly brilliant and unique achievement.”
Teaching[]
The Quartet was in residence at Columbia University in New York City and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. For many years, they were the primary performers at the in Northeast Harbor, Maine.
Ajemian was a long-time member of the Columbia University music faculty and served as a judge for several music organizations, including the annual Naumburg Foundation Awards.
Personal life[]
She was married to George Avakian, a record producer and founding officer of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. They had three children: Maro, Anahid and Gregory.
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Fox, Margalit (June 30, 2016). "Anahid Ajemian, Violinist and New-Music Champion, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- ^ Music: The Armenian Sisters March 21 1955 www.time.com, accessed 5 December 2020
External links[]
- "Anahid Ajemian biography". Archived from the original on December 23, 2007. Retrieved 2006-01-31.
- George Avakian and Anahid Ajemian papers, 1908–2013 Music Division, The New York Public Library.
- 1924 births
- Musicians from New York City
- American classical violinists
- American classical musicians of Armenian descent
- Contemporary classical music performers
- Juilliard School alumni
- Columbia University faculty
- 2016 deaths
- Classical musicians from New York (state)
- Women classical violinists