Hripsime Aghakaryan
Pianist
Biography
Born in Armenia (December 2, 1973) and raised in France, Michel Petrossian was attracted by the world of art since his childhood, starting by painting and studying the guitar and cello, and turning quickly to composing his own music.
After the studies of Composition, Orchestration, Analysis, Ethnomusicology and Classical Indian music in various French establishments, he graduated from Paris Conservatory in 2001.
A keen popularizer of contemporary music, in 1998 he co-founded the Cairn ensemble dedicated to the new music, and his works were aired on the French public radios, France Musique and France Culture. He received numerous commissions and was selected for the residencies in France (Royaumont Foundation) and Canada (Domaine Forget). The French Academy of Fine Arts awarded him the Veuve Buchère Price in 2000.
An enthusiast for ancient civilizations, he has studied a dozen functional languages. He received a Master’s degree in Classics at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and won a PhD scholarship to sojourn one year in Jerusalem at the French Archeological School. Such practical studies got him interested in ancient Middle Eastern music, a subject he has taught at the Polis Institute in Jerusalem; he also worked with Annie Bélis, a CNRS chief of department and a specialist in ancient Greek music.
He has traveled extensively in areas with a rich history such as Ethiopia, Israel, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cyprus, Armenia and Georgia, among others.
Nurtured by these experiences, a new way of composing emerged: his piano concerto In The Wake Of Ea, inspired by a Babylonian tablet, was chosen in 2013 as the winner among over a hundred and forty pieces by the jury of the International Composition Prix Queen Elisabeth in Belgium.
On the occasion of the commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, he was requested by the AGBU to compose a large piece, Ciel à vif, for three soloists, choir and orchestra, performed for the first time at the Chatelêt Theater in Paris, France, in April 2015, by the Armenian World Orchestra under the baton of maestro Alain Altinoglu.
Also in 2015 he received a commission from the Musicatreize ensemble. His Horae quidem cedunt for 12 solo singers based on the Latin text of Virgil has been performed during the Festival of Aix en Provence, in France.
In 2016, under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline of Hanover, Michel Petrossian and composers Gad Barnéa et Thierry Escaish created three pieces, one each, based on Hebrew, Greek and Latin texts from the Book of Jeremiah.
In January 2017 at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France, a new piece for choir and orchestra commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture was performed. Amours sidoniennes is inspired by some Greek inscriptions discovered in a funerary cave in Beit Gouvrin, Israel where Petrossian has participated to some archaeological investigations.
In 2017, on the occasion of the inauguration of a new room dedicated to icons at the Petit Palais Museum in Paris, France, the curator of the Byzantine collection commissioned a multidisciplinary piece Chanter l’icône (Declaiming the icon), where music, text and images recreate a Byzantine hymn through six musical sequences and texts in five languages.
On a completely different front of activity, in 2018 Michel Petrossian co-signed with jazzman Tigran Hamasyan the soundtrack of Bravo, virtuose! The DVD set of the movie comprises a CD with his clarinet concerto written for the soundtrack and performed by the most praised French clarinetist Philippe Berrod.
His work in the movie business continued with Robert Guediguian movie Gloria Mundi (official selection and the Prize of the best female actor at the Mostra del Cinema in Venice, Italy) whose soundtrack he composed in early 2019.
Another recent project was Michel Petrossian’s opera-oratorio Le Chant d’Archak on the original text by leading French author Laurent Gaudé, for a formation of two directors, twelve solo voices, a youth choir, and an instrumental ensemble.
The theme of this work is the disappearance of the language, its preservation by two Sages and its restitution leading to the drama. The piece was commissioned by the French Radio, the premiere took place at the courtyard of the Tatev Monastery, Armenia, and the piece has been subsequently performed at the Grand Auditorium of the Radio France, Paris, in November 2018.
Recently Michel Petrossian has developed several projects in the USA: work with the pianist Andrew Tyson who gave the American premiere of his La lutte ardente du vert et de l’or (Carnegie Hall, 2015 and a laudatory review in the New York Times), a contribution to Rhapsodies Around The World (University of Michigan, 2016) for clarinet and piano commissioned by the American-Israeli clarinetist Guy Yehuda, Latens deitas (commission by the University of Notre Dame, IN, 2019) and two commissions from Dilijan Chamber Music Series, LA, the trio A fiery flame, a flaming fire (2017) which has been issued on the CD “Modulation necklace”, and the string quartet Liber Secretorum Henoch inspired by a trip in Ethiopia (2019).
His music is published by Editions Gravis (Berlin).
A monographic CD of his vocal music by the Ensemble Musicatreize is in preparation.
After the studies of Composition, Orchestration, Analysis, Ethnomusicology and Classical Indian music in various French establishments, he graduated from Paris Conservatory in 2001.
A keen popularizer of contemporary music, in 1998 he co-founded the Cairn ensemble dedicated to the new music, and his works were aired on the French public radios, France Musique and France Culture. He received numerous commissions and was selected for the residencies in France (Royaumont Foundation) and Canada (Domaine Forget). The French Academy of Fine Arts awarded him the Veuve Buchère Price in 2000.
An enthusiast for ancient civilizations, he has studied a dozen functional languages. He received a Master’s degree in Classics at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and won a PhD scholarship to sojourn one year in Jerusalem at the French Archeological School. Such practical studies got him interested in ancient Middle Eastern music, a subject he has taught at the Polis Institute in Jerusalem; he also worked with Annie Bélis, a CNRS chief of department and a specialist in ancient Greek music.
He has traveled extensively in areas with a rich history such as Ethiopia, Israel, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cyprus, Armenia and Georgia, among others.
Nurtured by these experiences, a new way of composing emerged: his piano concerto In The Wake Of Ea, inspired by a Babylonian tablet, was chosen in 2013 as the winner among over a hundred and forty pieces by the jury of the International Composition Prix Queen Elisabeth in Belgium.
On the occasion of the commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, he was requested by the AGBU to compose a large piece, Ciel à vif, for three soloists, choir and orchestra, performed for the first time at the Chatelêt Theater in Paris, France, in April 2015, by the Armenian World Orchestra under the baton of maestro Alain Altinoglu.
Also in 2015 he received a commission from the Musicatreize ensemble. His Horae quidem cedunt for 12 solo singers based on the Latin text of Virgil has been performed during the Festival of Aix en Provence, in France.
In 2016, under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline of Hanover, Michel Petrossian and composers Gad Barnéa et Thierry Escaish created three pieces, one each, based on Hebrew, Greek and Latin texts from the Book of Jeremiah.
In January 2017 at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France, a new piece for choir and orchestra commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture was performed. Amours sidoniennes is inspired by some Greek inscriptions discovered in a funerary cave in Beit Gouvrin, Israel where Petrossian has participated to some archaeological investigations.
In 2017, on the occasion of the inauguration of a new room dedicated to icons at the Petit Palais Museum in Paris, France, the curator of the Byzantine collection commissioned a multidisciplinary piece Chanter l’icône (Declaiming the icon), where music, text and images recreate a Byzantine hymn through six musical sequences and texts in five languages.
On a completely different front of activity, in 2018 Michel Petrossian co-signed with jazzman Tigran Hamasyan the soundtrack of Bravo, virtuose! The DVD set of the movie comprises a CD with his clarinet concerto written for the soundtrack and performed by the most praised French clarinetist Philippe Berrod.
His work in the movie business continued with Robert Guediguian movie Gloria Mundi (official selection and the Prize of the best female actor at the Mostra del Cinema in Venice, Italy) whose soundtrack he composed in early 2019.
Another recent project was Michel Petrossian’s opera-oratorio Le Chant d’Archak on the original text by leading French author Laurent Gaudé, for a formation of two directors, twelve solo voices, a youth choir, and an instrumental ensemble.
The theme of this work is the disappearance of the language, its preservation by two Sages and its restitution leading to the drama. The piece was commissioned by the French Radio, the premiere took place at the courtyard of the Tatev Monastery, Armenia, and the piece has been subsequently performed at the Grand Auditorium of the Radio France, Paris, in November 2018.
Recently Michel Petrossian has developed several projects in the USA: work with the pianist Andrew Tyson who gave the American premiere of his La lutte ardente du vert et de l’or (Carnegie Hall, 2015 and a laudatory review in the New York Times), a contribution to Rhapsodies Around The World (University of Michigan, 2016) for clarinet and piano commissioned by the American-Israeli clarinetist Guy Yehuda, Latens deitas (commission by the University of Notre Dame, IN, 2019) and two commissions from Dilijan Chamber Music Series, LA, the trio A fiery flame, a flaming fire (2017) which has been issued on the CD “Modulation necklace”, and the string quartet Liber Secretorum Henoch inspired by a trip in Ethiopia (2019).
His music is published by Editions Gravis (Berlin).
A monographic CD of his vocal music by the Ensemble Musicatreize is in preparation.
