Arman Gushchian

Arman Gushchian graduated with honors from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied composition with Roman Ledenyov and received a Master's degree. He then continued his studies with Roland Moser (composition) and Georg Friedrich Haas (analysis and orchestration) at the Basel Music Academy, and completed his postgraduate studies (Meisterklassenexamen, the highest artistic qualification in Germany) with Mark Andre (composition) and Franz Martin Olbrisch (sound studies and computer music) at the Dresden University of Music.

 

He has created over forty concert, stage, and installation works, as well as incidental music for ten theatrical productions. His works have been performed and staged across Europe, Russia, the United States, and Armenia by ensembles including the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, the Isidore String Quartet, Brightwork newMusic, and Apartment House, and by soloists including Grammy Award–winning violist and conductor Yuri Bashmet. His work has appeared at the Lucerne Festival, ISCM World New Music Days, reMusik Festival (St. Petersburg), and the HEAR NOW Music Festival (Los Angeles). Composer Brian Ferneyhough has described his music as "very impressive," and critic Pyotr Pospelov as "complex, refined." His music has been recorded on the Melodiya label.

 

Gushchian's honors include First Prize at the AVANTI Composers Competition (Moscow), the Grand Prize at the Pythian Games (St. Petersburg), Second Prize at the Pre-Art competition (Zurich), and prestigious DAAD and Swiss Government Excellence scholarships. He held a year-long artistic residency at the Richard-Wagner-Stätten Graupa (Germany).

 

Before joining the Hall-Musco Conservatory, he taught composition, music analysis, and orchestration at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Dresden University of Music, and music and sound design for theater at the HSE Art and Design School. A longtime advocate of the American experimental tradition, he organized a six-day Alvin Lucier festival in Moscow in 2017 that attracted over a thousand listeners.