BIRTH OF TATEVIK SAZANDARIAN

Tatevik Sazandarian was an operatic mezzo–soprano who became a well-known soloist at the Yerevan Opera Theater and then a longtime teacher at the Komitas Conservatory.

She was born in Khndzoresk, in Siunik, on August 20, 1916. She grew up in Baku, where she sang as a soloist in the school choir from the age of ten. She moved to Moscow in 1932 and sang in several amateur performances. She began performing in concerts in 1933 and studied at the musical and drama studios of the Armenian Cultural House of Moscow. She returned to Armenia, where she studied at the School of Music and Drama of Yerevan. In 1937 she became a soloist at the Yerevan Opera Theater. She is remembered for playing the main roles in Armenian classic operas: Parandzem in Arshak II (Tigran Chukhajian) and Tamar in David Bek (Armenian Tigranian). She also performed leading roles in Carmen, Aida, and Eugene Onegin.

In 1960 she graduated from the Komitas Conservatory as an unenrolled student. After leaving the Yerevan Opera in 1961, she started teaching at the Komitas Conservatory and became professor in 1970 and then chair (1977–1999). At the same time, she headed the solo singing department at the Art and Theatre Institute of Yerevan (1972-1977). She performed in the principal cities of the Soviet Union, as well as in Persia, Sweden, Tunisia, Hungary, Syria, Belgium, Greece, Czechoslovakia, and France between 1956 and 1963.

Sazandarian was honored with many awards including the State Prize of Armenia (1951, then called Stalin Prize) and the Mesrop Mashtots medal (1997).

She passed away on October 6, 1999, in Yerevan. A stamp was issued in 2016 on the centenary of her birth.