Siretsi Yars Taran (tar) - Soghomon Seyranyan // Սիրեցի յարս տարան (թառ) - Սողոմոն Սեյրանյան

Описание: Soghomon Gabrieli Seyranyan was born on September 16, 1907, in the village of Nor-Shen in Artsakh. At the age of 10, he moved with his family to Baku, where he first taught himself to play the mandolin and then learned the tar. He considered the renowned tarist Bala Meliqyan his teacher.

In 1926, he became the concertmaster and soloist of the first orchestra of folk instruments [State Azerbaijani Eastern Orchestra of Folk Instruments], founded and directed by Ioannes Ioannisyan in Baku. By the 1930s, Seyranyan was working as a soloist for both the Philharmonic and the Radio Committee in Baku, accompanying famous singers, teaching mugham at the conservatory, and leading folk instrument ensembles.

In 1939, he won first place in the tar players’ division at the All-Union Competition of Folk Instrument Players in Moscow.

In 1944, Seyranyan moved to Yerevan, where he led the folk instrument ensemble at the State Philharmonic of Armenia from 1944 to 1948. Beginning in 1948, he worked as a soloist in the Armenian Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments and participated in the second ten-day festival of Armenian art and literature in Moscow in 1956.

From 1956 to 1959, he lived in Baku, working as a soloist in the local Philharmonic, before returning in 1959 to the Armenian Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments, where he remained until 1974.

His achievements were widely recognized: in 1951, he was awarded the honorary degree of the ASSR, and in 1961, he received the title of People’s Artist. He was also awarded with the “Sign of Honor” and the “For the Defense of the Caucasus” medal.

Seyranyan’s performances can be heard in the feature films Before Sunrise, Kamo’s Final Feat, The Color of Pomegranates, and Sayat-Nova.

On May 6, 1974, he passed away on the stage of the Gabriel Sundukyan Drama Theater in Yerevan. He suffered a fatal heart attack immediately after performing composer Anton Mayilyan’s Fantasy during the concert section of the solemn session dedicated to Radio Day.

In honor of his legacy, the music school in his native village of Nor-Shen, Artsakh bears his name.

Conductor and tar player Hovhannes Darbinyan described Seyranyan as “the oak of Armenian tar music,” writing: “S. Seyranyan was a scholar-theorist of Eastern music, an unsurpassed virtuoso tar player, a reformer, and a public figure.”