Role: Composer

Tigran Mansurian was born in 1939 in Beirut to Armenian parents. They returned to Yerevan in 1947. Widely regarded as Armenia’s leading composer, Mansurian taught at the Komitas-State Conservatory from 1960, and was its director from 1990, a position he soon relinquished to concentrate exclusively on writing music. His oeuvre includes vocal, chamber and orchestral works. In 2003 ECM released “Hayren” (ECM New Series 1754) with music of Komitas and Mansurian played by Kim Kashkashian, Robyn Schulkowsky and Mansurian himself on the piano, followed in 2004 by “Monodia“ (ECM New Series 1850/51), a double album of Mansurian’s music featuring Kashkashian, Jan Garbarek, Leonidas Kavakos, the Hilliard Ensemble and the Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Poppen.

Before Tigran started studying piano in his native Armenia, he began to teach himself accordion when he was seven years old. He later took up cello, and was admitted to The Tigran Chukajian Music School, where he studied cello with Tiruhi Sargisian. After three years, he began to study piano as a secondary instrument under the guidance of Kathia Sahakian. He was soon honored with an unprecedented invitation to perform at the school's piano concert. By the time he graduated from the Chukajain School in 1988, Tigran had for many years, since the age of twelve, been playing accordion professionally all over Armenia. \

The Beautified project was formed in 2004 by Andre Simonian in London. Its music was designed to portray the dark side of human spirit, with a kind of melancholic and mellow sound that reminds us of musicians such as Dido, James Blunt and David Grey, but with kind of anger and despair in its lyrics and attitude that has more in common with the likes of Cold Play, Radiohead and even Metallica. \

Taline's objective is to produce entertaining and educational Armenian songs that today’s children can relate to and to keep the Armenian spirit alive in our new generation.