Sofa Aznauryan

Born in Krasnodar. In 1978 she graduated from the theory and composition department of the Rimsky-Korsakov Music Pedagogical College in Krasnodar, and in 1983 from the composition department of the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory (class of Professor G. Yeghiazaryan, People's Artist of the USSR). In 1983, at the USSR Young Composers' Competition in Moscow, she was awarded a diploma for a vocal cycle to words by A. Movsisyan. She taught theoretical subjects at the Krasnodar Krai Pedagogical Music College. In 1984-1987 she worked at the Krai radio as editor of stereo programmes. Since 1987 she has lived in Yerevan. She has worked as an accompanist in the choral conducting department of the Kh. Abovyan Pedagogical Institute, the vocal department of the Yerevan State Conservatory (YSC) and the vocal and stage-craft department of the Theatre Institute, and from 2000 to the present at the YSC's "YSC Publishing House" and at the academic journal "Yerazhshtakan Hayastan" ("Musical Armenia"). She is the author of the mono-operas "Huys" ("Hope", after the story by Z. Gippius, 2004) and "Hamlet" (after Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, 2007), and of the chamber opera "Armenia" (on the poetry and prose of O. and N. Mandelstam, 2005), which have been presented at several international theatre and music festivals; of the children's opera "Chikarelii arkatsnery" ("The Adventures of Chikareli", after the work of the same name by R. Marukhyan, 2014); and of the musical tales "Mer Mashan" ("Nasha Masha", "Our Masha", A. Gishyan, 2020). She is the author of more than 30 articles published in the national press. Aznauryan is an academician of the International Academy of Sciences of Pedagogical Education (2007). She has been awarded the UNESCO commemorative medal dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of A. Khachaturian, certificates of honour from the international theatre festivals "HighFest" (2005) and "ArmMono" (2007 and 2017), and, in 2019, the Vahan Tekeyan International Prize. She is a member of the Composers' Union and the Journalists' Union of Armenia.