Edward Mirzoyan
Edward Mirzoyan was a Soviet and Armenian composer and teacher. He was born in Gori on May 12, 1921, and moved to Yerevan with his mother when he was three. From 1929, he studied at the Yerevan Music School. In 1941, he graduated from the Yerevan Conservatory, where he studied composition with S. V. Barkhudaryan and V. G. Talyan; his graduation work was the symphonic poem Sako of Lori.
After further study in Moscow in 1946–1948, Mirzoyan taught at a music school in Yerevan and, from 1948, at the Yerevan Conservatory. He became a professor in 1965 and headed its composition department from 1972 to 1986. From 1952, he also taught at the Romanos Melikian Music College. His students included Konstantin Orbelyan, Avet Terterian, Robert Amirkhanyan, Martin Vartazaryan, Levon Chaushian, and Alexander Pirumov.
Mirzoyan wrote works in several genres, including cantatas, symphonic poems, chamber music, songs, choral works, and film scores. His instrumental works include a 1962 symphony for string orchestra and timpani, a 1947 string quartet, and a 1967 sonata for cello and piano. He also arranged Armenian folk songs and wrote romances setting poems by Hovhannes Tumanyan, Silva Kaputikyan, Vahan Teryan, Yeghishe Charents, and Avetik Isahakyan.
His film music included scores for When Friends Are Near (1956), The Landslide (1959), and Twelve Companions (1961). Mirzoyan was named People's Artist of the Armenian SSR in 1963 and People's Artist of the USSR in 1981. He received the Aram Khachaturian Prize in 1988. He died in Yerevan on October 5, 2012, and was buried in the Komitas Pantheon.