Armenians bid final farewell to legendary duduk player Jivan Gasparyan

YEREVAN, JULY 24, ARMENPRESS. Final farewell ceremony for legendary duduk player of Armenia Jivan Gasparyan was held today at the Aram Khachatryan concert hall.

The ceremony was attended by caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, other top officials, cultural fights, the legendary master’s friends, relatives and numerous citizens.

Jivan Gasparyan has passed away at the age of 92 on July 6.

Born inSolak, Armenia to parents fromMush,Jivan Gasparyan started to play duduk when he was six. In 1948, he became a soloist of the Armenian Song and Dance Popular Ensemble and the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has won four medals atUNESCOworldwide competitions (1959, 1962, 1973, and 1980). In 1973 Gasparyan was awarded the honorary titlePeople's Artist of Armenia.In 2002, he received theWOMEX(World Music Expo) Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a Honorary citizen of Yerevan.

A professor at theYerevan State Musical Conservatory, he has instructed and nurtured many performers to professional levels of performance in duduk.

In 1998 he released an album with a unique dudukquartet he formed. Creating arrangements for four musicians with "new duduk tones, alto and bass, was an extremely difficult task" and challenge, but the quartet did become a reality performing and "there is no other like it in the world", he witnessed in the lines notes ofNazeli.

He has toured the world several times with a small ensemble playing Armenianfolk music. His music has been chosen on the soundtrack of several international films.

He also recorded with theKronos Quartetand theLos Angeles Philharmonic.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan