Yerevan State Musical Conservatory (YSC) or Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, (Armenian: Կոմիտասի անվան Երեվանի Պետական Երաժշտական Կոնսերվատորիա) is a conservatory located in Yerevan, Armenia. It was founded in 1921 as a music studio, and re-founded two years later as a higher musical education institution.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Armenian professional performing culture was shaped. It was represented by the graduates of Russian and European conservatories. Violinist Hovhanness Nalbandyan, (St. Petersburg Conservatory and Berlin Musikhochschule), singer M.Akimova (Leipzig Conservatory), musicologist M.Aghayan (St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories), singer A.Shahmuradyan (Conservatoire de Paris), etc.
The musician, composer and Choir Conductor, a Moscow Conservatory graduate Romanos Melikyan become the founder and leader of the first Armenian Conservatory. He not only organized the Conservatory, but also orientated the teaching staff to the preparation of high-level musicians. The professional musicians, who graduated from the conservatories of Russia and Europe, were among the first teaching staff of the Conservatory.
The founders of YSC were pianists A.Mnatsakanyan, I.Madatyan, Ye.Khankalamyan, Ye.Khosrovyan, violinists A.Gabrielyan, D.Soghomonyan, G.Mirza-Avagyan, as well as A.Kotlyarevsky and A.Ayvazyan (viola, cello, and chamber ensemble), W.Sperling (wind instruments and orchestra) and others.
In 2002, pianist Prof. Sergey Saradjyan was appointed to the post of YSC rector.
Today the teaching staff consists of 150 professors, many of whom are Doctors of Arts, and a number of them are International Competitions laureates. A lot of the past and present students are International prizewinners.
The Conservatory is located near the Armenian Opera Theater. It is a four-floor building with 450 different premises. These are lecture-and classrooms, including 2 special organ studios and 12 piano classes with two grand pianos, library and reading-hall, sound recording studio and medical office, student council and musical instruments workshop, music store, buffet, etc.
The Student Council is self-governed and is formed of students from different study years, who are chosen in the faculty student meetings. The chairman is chosen by the council members. The Student Council is aimed to defend students' interests, help them to solve their social and life problems and organize their free time. The council provides financial aid, nominal scholarships and removes the study fee fully or partially. The chairman of the council is co-opted to the YSC Rectorate. The students also delegate 25% of the Student Council staff to the Big Council of the YSC.
The YSC has a permanent student symphony orchestra, chamber and folk instruments orchestras, folklore choir and different chamber ensembles - trio, quartets, wind sextet, etc.
The Opera Studio with its symphony orchestra and choir is situated in one of the YSC buildings. The Studio has at its disposal the Big Hall with theater stage (275 seats), where the studio participants, both teachers and students: producers, conductors, orchestra musicians and choir singers, stage the operas. All the vocal parts in these operas are performed by the students of the Vocal Department.
There are also three small concert halls in the Conservatory (80-100 seats in each one). They are used for the academic evenings, solo, class, faculty or jubilee recitals, annual session of the Top Student Society, student formal and informal meetings and "skills".
YSC has more than 120 foreign students.[]
The Foreign Students Department of the YSC was established in late 1950s. It included not only students from the former USSR countries or the neighbor countries, but also from China, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Oman. YSC also attracts young people from Europe (France, Great Britain, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Cyprus) and both North and South Americas (Canada, USA, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay), for the study in Armenia.
Many YSC graduates from Asia and Africa have become authors of first national operas, symphonic compositions, textbooks on musical-theoretical subjects and different piano or violin "Schools", etc. Thus, for example, YSC graduate Saad Salim has written and published in Lebanon the book "Violin: Past and Present". He has also got his Doctor of Arts degree in Sorbonne. Shafar Ghabili, also from Lebanon, has become the author of the first Arab opera, etc.
Arshak Adamian
Sergei Saradjian
Tigran Mansurian
