Vi-O-La by Vaché Sharafyan

Vaché Sharafyan was born on 11 February 1966 in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1990 he graduated with distinction from the Composition Department at Yerevan State Conservatory, after which he took a postgraduate degree in composition under Professor E. Mirzoyan (prize winner in the All-Union Composers' Competition in Moscow, 1985). Between 1992 and 1996 he worked as professor of music theory and sacred music at the Jerusalem Theological Seminary, and edited a book of chants for the Holy Sepulchre Church in the same city. He became a BMI Composer in 2002, and was awarded the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship (Italy) in 2006. He was Guest Professor of Armenian music studies at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2011, and was awarded the Bogliasco Fellowship (Italy) in 2013. Since 1998 he has participated in many music festivals in Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ukraine and the USA. Since 2001 he has been the official composer for Yo-yo Ma's renowned Silk Road project, and many of his works have been performed by the Silk Road Ensemble at famous concert halls in Europe and the USA. The ensemble has performed Sharafyan's The Sun, the Wine and the Wind of Time and The Morning Scent of the Acacia's Song amongst other works composed by him.