Balasanian Sergey Balasanian

Sergey Artemyevich Balasanian (or Balasanyan, 26 August 1902 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – 3 June 1982 Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet and Armenian composer. 

After graduating from Kabalevsky’s composition class at the Moscow Conservatory (1935), he worked in Stalinabad (now Dushanbe) and took a large part in the development of professional music in the republics of central Asia. He made a serious study of Tajik folk music, recording and arranging a great number of songs. This work assisted him in creating the first Tajik works for the musical stage, among them the opera Vosstaniye Vose (‘Vose's Uprising’, 1939), which relates the story of a peasant revolt at the end of the 19th century and which uses many Tajik melodies in symphonic development.

Balasanian’s music gradually grew more complex as his technical mastery became sharper. The ballet Leyli i Medzhnun, which achieved particular renown, is based on a widely known eastern legend; its subtle lyricism, vividly characterized images and symphonic growth established it in the Soviet repertory, and a successful film version was produced. Balasanian has also drawn on other folk musics: Armenian, Afghan, Indian and Latin American. Of his expressive and colourful orchestral works the most notable is the suite 7 armyanskikh pesen (‘7 Armenian Songs’). His chamber pieces show him as a delicate lyricist and a master of small forms. From 1948 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, heading the composition department there for many years. He was awarded the titles People’s Artist of the Tajik SSR (1970) and Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR (1964), and he was winner of the State Prize.