Suren Kocharyan is a conductor, professor, Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, winner of the Mykola Manoil Prize.
Brief biography
In 1937, he graduated from high school. At the same time, he studied at the music school, violin class, and then - at the Yerevan Music College - with Professor D. M. Lekher. In 1938-1940, he worked at the Spendiarov Music School as a violin teacher, and at the same time worked in the orchestra of the Russian Drama Theatre of Yerevan.
Since May 1940, he has been in the ranks of the Armenian Army. During the German-Soviet war, he was a member of the First and Fourth Ukrainian Fronts - the 117th Guards Rifle Division and the 25th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division.
In 1945, he was demobilised, entered the Kyiv Conservatory, and studied viola with Professor I. Vaks, a member of the string quartet, and graduated in 1950.
In 1945-1947, he worked in the Symphony Orchestra of the Ukrainian Radio. In the 1948-1950s - in the string quartet of the Kyiv Regional Philharmonic. After graduating from the Conservatory, he worked as a viola teacher at the Kyiv Music Decade. During 1953-1961 he worked in the string quartet of the Republican Philharmonic. During this time, the quartet travelled to all Soviet republics, performing more than 500 concerts, and in 1960 performed at the first decade of literature and art of Ukraine in the concert halls of Moscow.
In 1961-1964, he was a senior lecturer at the Kyiv Conservatory, class of string quartet, and combined his work with teaching at the Mykola Lysenko Special Music Boarding School.
In 1964, he was selected as an associate professor at the Kharkiv Institute of Arts, teaching viola at the Department of Orchestral Stringed Instruments. At the same time, he began working as a teacher at the Kharkiv Special Music Boarding School. At the same time, he continued his performing activities, was a member of the pedagogical institute quartet, which included Adolf Leshchynskyi, R. Klymenska and J. Helfenbein. The quartet successfully performed in Kharkiv and other cities of the Ukrainian SSR. A large part of the works recorded by Kocharyan as part of string quartets were recorded on discs and included in the Golden Fund of Ukrainian Radio.
In 1967, he organised a chamber orchestra at the Kharkiv Institute of Arts, where he was the artistic director and conductor until the end of his life. Famous Ukrainian and foreign musicians such as David Walter, Tetiana Verkina, Bohodar Kotorovych, Oleh Krysa, Hryhorii Kuperman, M. Mohylevskyi, Petro Polukhin, R. Popkova, Yurii Smirnov, V. Sokolov, Mykola Suk, O. Friedman, Lidiia Shutko, Vadym Chervov, A. Yuriev, and Oleh Yanchenko performed with the chamber orchestra.
In 1968-1970, he was the dean of the performing arts faculty of the Kharkiv Institute of Arts. From 1970 to 1986, he worked as the head of the Department of Chamber Ensemble and Quartet. In 1971, he was promoted to associate professor. In 1974, he was elected to the position of Acting Professor of the Department of Orchestral Strings, and from 1986 he was the head of the department until the end of his life.
The orchestra gave concerts in Kyiv, Lviv, Moscow, Poltava, Riga, Sumy, and the Republic of Malta. In Moscow and Kharkiv, Suren Kocharyan also performed with the orchestra and as a performer. The orchestra won the 1st prize of the National Competition, a diploma at the International Festival in Malta, the International Festival in Kyiv, the Mozart Days in Ukraine, and the Kharkiv Assemblies International Festival.
The orchestral repertoire included music of various styles and eras - both baroque works and compositions by contemporary composers. A large part of the repertoire was composed by composers and teachers of the Kharkiv University of Arts - Valentyn Bibik, Valentyn Borysov, Dmytro Klebanov, Ihor Kovach, Volodymyr Ptushkin, and Mykola Stetsiun. Many Kharkiv composers dedicated their works to Kocharyan, who was their first interpreter.
He also worked as a quartet teacher and trained about 60 violists who work in orchestras and educational institutions in Ukraine, the former USSR, Great Britain, Germany, the USA, Finland, and the Czech Republic. Among his students are Yuri Ioffe, People's Artist of Russia, and Emma Kupriyanenko, Candidate of Arts, Associate Professor.
