Garbis Aprikian

Aprikian is regarded as a pioneer of bringing Armenian music to France.

Garbis Aprikian studied at École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot and Conservatoire de Paris. The recorded working language is Armenian and French. Positions recorded include choir director. Distinctions recorded are Medal of the City of Paris, Khorenatsi medal, Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

• Name — Garbis Aprikian • Born — 1926 • Birthplace — Alexandria, Egypt • Place of death — Malakoff, Hauts-de-Seine, France • Occupation — * Composer • Choral conductor • Organizations — Sipan-Komitas • Works — List of compositions • Awards — * Ordre des Arts et des Lettres · Grand Vermeil Medal

Aprikian was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1926. He studied at the Armenian National Boghossian primary school and then at the American College. From the age of ten he began serious music lessons with Maestro Frapicini, a student of Pietro Mascagni, in piano as well as in harmony and counterpoint. He sang in the children's choir of the Eglise Arménienne d'Alexandrie, also as a soloist. Learning about Armenian history and music made him feel "a sense of national pride". In 1948, Aprikian founded the mixed chorus Hamazkaine with which he gave concerts in Alexandria, in Cairo and on radio. The success encouraged members of the association Houssaper to award him a scholarship to complete his training in Europe.

Aprikian arrived in Paris in 1953 where he studied composition and conducting at the Ecole Normale of Music with Simone Plé-Caussade, Tony Aubin and Jean Fournet and took a course on musical aesthetics by Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris. The Armenian mixed chorus Sipan-Komitas then sought him to replace Kurken Alemshah, and he accepted the position. He conducted the choir from the 1950s for about fifty years. He composed and harmonized popular melodies and old patriotic songs, more than two hundred religious, secular and folk works. They performed at the Festival d'Avignon, at Sénanque Abbey, the Chartreuse of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, in Normandy, Rennes, Cannes, Venice, and the festival Art Sacré de la ville de Paris. They performed concerts in Brussels, Geneva, Bern, Basel, Munich and Amsterdam, among others, and recorded several CDs. In 1991 Aprikian was invited for the first time by Armenian authorities to go to Yerevan, where he performed in a concert of his own works and those of other composers of the Armenian Diaspora.

Agprikian had a son, Ara. Aprikian died at his home in Malakoff, Hauts-de-Seine, on 15 October 2024, at the age of 98.

Aprikian said in an interview that in his compositions, he took melody mostly from Armenian music, but fused it with Western classical music's harmonies when he arranged themes from Armenian folk music, calling it a "'noble' transcription of tradition". He composed original works but also arrangements of Armenian folk music and of works by other Armenian composers such as Komitas. His sources included Armenian children's songs, prayers, songs about nature, battle songs and processional songs. He composed the Petit suite nuptiale for his son's wedding, based on songs his father had sung to him when he was a child. He wrote an oratorio, Naissance de David de Sassoun, to a libretto by Hagop Oshagan, for soloists, choir and orchestra, premiered in 1994.