Siddhesh Joshi (Editor)

Jean Ter Merguerian

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Birth name
  
Jean Ter-Merguerian

Name
  
Jean Ter-Merguerian

Role
  
Violinist


Instruments
  
Violin

Genres
  
Classical music

Years active
  
1946–2015

Movies
  
My Little Prince


Also known as
  
Merguirian / Mergherian / Mergerian / Mergerjan

Born
  
5 October 1935 Marseille, France (
1935-10-05
)

Died
  
September 29, 2015, Marseille, France

Similar People
  
Marina Chiche, Emmanuel Strosser, Christian Ivaldi, Jean‑Jacques Kantorow, Alain Meunier

Occupation(s)
  
Violinist, pedagogue

Khachaturian: Violin Concerto in D minor - Jean Ter Merguerian


Jean Ter-Merguerian (Armenian: Ժան Տեր-Մերկերյան; Marseille, 5 October 1935 – Marseille, 29 September 2015) was a French-Armenian virtuoso violinist and violin pedagogue.

Contents

Biography

Jean Ter-Merguerian has got the first prize for violin at the Marseille Conservatoire at the age of 11. In the same year, his first recital took place, where he performed Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor and Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E minor. He continued his musical studies in Yerevan with Prof. Karp Dombayev and then in the Moscow Conservatory in the class of David Oistrakh. Jean Ter-Merguerian is a prizewinner of international violin competitions, such as Prague Spring (1956), Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Queen Elisabeth in Bruxelles (1963). He also got the first Grand Prix at the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris (1961). He taught in the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory having simultaneously multiple concerts in ex-USSR, Western Europe, Lebanon, South America, the United States, and Canada.

In 1975, during his USA tour, he played in Boston the Violin Concerto by Brahms; The story goes that, at the conclusion of the concert, the conductor Arthur Fiedler, who was very hard to please and given to lavishing praise, embraced the young violinist on stage with paternal love and wished him success. This was the ringing endorsement of the talent of Jean Ter Merguerian, who had just given his first performance in the United States.

His solo performances were accompanied by orchestras of different countries conducted by famous conductors, also Aram Khachaturian having conducted his own violin concerto. Jean Ter-Merguerian is a member of juries of international competitions: "Paganini" in Italy, "Sarasate" in Spain, "Tchaikovsky" in Moscow and "Khachaturian" in Yerevan. Leaved in France, giving master classes there and abroad. He played on a Nicolò Amati violin. Jean Ter-Merguerian died of cancer, after a long illness at his home, in Marseille, on 29 September 2015. He is survived by his wife, the pianist Lilia, his son Vagram and his daughter.

Quotes from colleagues (in original language)

  • „J'ai une grande admiration pour Jean. Sa sonorité, sa technique et sa musicalité sont parfaites. ...C'est un très grand artiste, un violoniste sensationnel...“ (Zino Francescatti)
  • „Le violoniste le plus doué de sa génération.“ (Henryk Szeryng)
  • „Jean Ter-Merguerian n'est pas seulement un grand violoniste, il est un grand artiste.“ (Christian Ferras)
  • „La pus belle technique d'archet du monde tout instrument à corde confondu.“ (Mstislav Rostropovitch)
  • „Jean Ter-Merguerian is a gentleman among violinists. He has extraordinary technical skills and a deep musicality.“ (Jonathan Dove, The Strad)
  • Recordings

    No official recital and concerts recordings by Jean Ter-Merguerian exists. Only two CD-Rs of live and archive broadcast material have been released (CD-R 1 : "Selection from Performances" / CD-R 2 : "Khachaturian 100th"). The 1966 Armenian Radio broadcast recording of Bach Double Concerto is part of a 2CDs compilation dedicated to his colleague, the violinist Anahit Tsitsikian. In 1999 Jean Ter-Merguerian recorded his only commercial release: Gérard Gasparian's Violin Sonata (1990), with the composer himself at the piano (CD Timpani 1C1055). Armenian Radio TV archives are full of Jean Ter-Merguerian's recordings, yet to be discovered.

    References

    Jean Ter-Merguerian Wikipedia