Sarkis Aslamazian

A cellist, composer, teacher and founding member of the Komitas Quartet, Aslamazian was born in 1896 in Mozdok, Russia, where he received his early musical education from his father. He later enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory where he later taught cello and string quartet literature for more than fourty years. In 1925, while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Aslamazian was one of the founding members of the String Quartet of the Moscow Conservatory, whose members were all students of the Conservatory. It was in those early years in the life of the Quartet that Aslamazian began working on the transciptions. Despite changes, Aslamazian and Aved Kaprielian (first violin) remained with the Quartet for some fourty years, as the quartet gained wide international and local acclaim, concertizing in major cities throughout the world, including a trip to the U.S. in the early 1960s. In 1931, the Quartet became the official quartet of Soviet Armenia.