Balasanyan, David: Monologue-Fantasy, for clarinet

Composer(s)

David Balasanyan (b. 10 October 1983, Yerevan): Armenian composer of mostly chamber and vocal works that have been performed in Europe and elsewhere; he is also active as a pianist.

Mr. Balasanyan studied composition and piano with Ashot Hazaryan at a music school in Yerevan from 1991–98, as well as composition with Ashot Hazaryan and piano with Avetik Pivazyan at the Romanos Melikian College of Music in Yerevan from 1998–2000. He studied composition with Ashot Zohrabyan at the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan from 2000–05, where he later had postgraduate studies in composition with Ashot Zohrabyan.

Among his honours are co-Second Prize in the competition Benjamin Britten in Yerevan (2003, for Composition for Woodwind Quintet) and the Narekatsi Young Composers Award in Yerevan (2006, for Postlude in memoriam...). His music has been performed in Armenia, Georgia, Switzerland, and the USA.

As a pianist, he has performed his own music, as well as works by composers from the past and present, throughout Armenia, including on the TV programme Pshalar.

He is also active in other positions. He has written numerous poems, many of which appear in the collection Arahetner (2001, Mitq). He participated with Ashot Zohrabyan as an Armenian delegate to the European Composers Congress in Vienna (2006). He co-founded with Robert Amirkhanyan the Young Composers Club of the Armenian Composers Union in Yerevan in 2006 and later served as its director.

He taught choral writing as an assistant to Gevorg Armenyan at the Komitas State Conservatory in 2004–05.