Professor Yeritsyan’s immeasurable wealth

by Armen Hakobyan

Published: Saturday November 08, 2008 in Armenia at work

Martin Yeritsyan in his studio. Armen Hakobyan / Armenian Reporter

Writing about well-known people is both easy and difficult. It's easy because most times an introduction is not necessary. Difficult because with their status comes responsibility, especially when what they do is unique and remarkable.

The hero of our story, Martin Yeritsyan, professor of the quartet department at Komitas Conservatory of Music in Yerevan is someone who is creating miracles in his profession. Besides being a musician and a pedagogue, he also makes violins; the son and successor of a renowned master of violin making or luthier, Shahen Yeritsyan. He is a person with equally interesting perceptions of the world with an aristocratic air about him.

A heavy metal door opens and it feels as though you are entering an imaginary world. In reality it is a small room in the basement of the Aram Khachatrian Museum in Yerevan. The chairs and music stands, the pictures on the walls, the photographs, the posters and musical instruments for a string quartet remind you that it is not an ordinary room.

After getting to know the owner of the room and feeling the warmth of his kindness, it feels as if there are no walls and you are in a vast and breathtakingly beautiful garden of flowers.

I bring the instrument to the master. He sits in front of his work table, where tools necessary for a luthier have been placed with care. For a second I feel like I am committing a crime for interrupting the work of a renowned master for such a minor repair. I tell him how I feel."You are wrong, my dear," responds Martin Yeritsyan.

He picks up the violin and after a few seconds says, "It is the product of the Moscow factory." Then he examines the "stamp" more closely and smiles as if he has met an old acquaintance. "I have worked on this violin at least once before, nine or ten years ago," he says. Of course, Martin Yeritsyan, just like all master violin makers has his own signature, through which hundreds of his instruments are identifiable. But how did he manage to recall exactly when he worked on this particular factory production, which appears to have no outstanding details? "Do you see this string? Only I had these stings in Armenia and I used them about 9-10 years ago," smiles Martin Yeritsyan as he stretches and fixes the strings. For a second, he truly does look like a kind magician from a fairy tale; just as my daughter had described him after seeing him for the first time.

I thank the master and ask him how much I have to pay. He smiles again, "Nothing. Tell the child to practice well..."

Call of the forefather

I go through Meroujhan Simonian's recently published Yeritsyan Luthiers which, meticulously analyses the individualized musical instruments prepared by Shahen and Martin Yeritsyan and Hakob and Samvel Yeritsyan. He writes about the lives of these Armenian men. Nevertheless, at the start of my conversation with Martin Yeritsyan I ask the master to talk about his origins and his renowned father Shahen Yeritsyan. I learn a truly interesting, touching and very Armenian story; the story of Shahen Yeritsyan who was born in Trabizond, witnessed the horrors of the Genocide at an early age, miraculously escaped the Turkish sword with his brother Masis (he later became a victim of Stalin's repressions) and his maternal cousin Hakob. For some time he found shelter with Kurdish nomads as a herdsman. The story of the escape of the Yeritsyan brothers continues in Greece, at the boys' orphanage of Salonika, which even though was called American, was actually sponsored by wealthy Armenians. This is where young Shahen Yeritsyan became acquainted with the violin and the nuances of creating this amazing instrument. This is where he learned the secrets of the Italian masters of violin making.

"My father moved to Armenia in 1925 with his maternal grandmother, Mariam. Since he was already a master, he established his studio in Yerevan. He made mandolins, guitars, violas, violins, cellos," Martin recalls.

Numerous generations of musicians and professional performers have grown up and mesmerized audiences in concert halls with their performances on unique instruments prepared by Master Shahen.

During those years they began to bring violins to Armenia made by renowned masters of the past. Gradually a collection of instruments made by Italian and French masters from the 17th and 18th centuries were brought to Armenia. The instruments came from different cities, including Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Sahak Karapetian, president of the Soviet Armenia Council of Ministers, Karp Dombaev, Constantin Sarajev, Vazgen I, the Catholicos of All Armenians and many other devotees contributed to this collection. Due to their efforts, Armenia currently has a collection of about 20-22 valuable and unique Italian string instruments, made by Guarneri, Guadanini, Galliano, Belgontsi and other famous masters. There are also instruments made by a famous Armenian, Shahen Yeritsyan: two violins made in 1933, one viola made in 1935 and a cello made in 1938.

With typical modesty, Martin Yeritsyan doesn't mention that he is the guardian and restorer of that collection.

Faithful to the call of the master

" I was born in January 31, 1932, in Yerevan in our house on Maxim Gorki Street which my father constructed together with my mother Siranoush. From a young age I was always in my father's studio. When I was a student, my father always insisted and advised that I should first of all become a good violinist and only after that should I study making violins. Following his advice, I graduated from Yerevan State Conservatory after which, I studied toward my PhD. After preparing a concert program, which took me three years, I was immediately admitted to Armenia's philharmonic quartet as second violinist," recounts the master.

Living inside the Iron Curtain during the Soviet era made it almost impossible to achieve international recognition, let alone go on concert tours to foreign countries. However, Armenia's philharmonic quartet, composed of first violin Levon Mamikonian, second violin Martin Yeritsyan, viola Yuri Manukian and cello Felix Simonian, was allowed to participate in the international Queen Elizabeth competition in Belgium in 1969 winning high acclaim and a special diploma. "It was an unprecedented thing in the Soviet Union that a group or even a solo performer from Armenia received permission to travel abroad. Seldom did they manage to get permission to participate in an international competition abroad," notes my interlocutor."After that concert the geography of out concert tour, of course, broadened. We preformed in Italy, France, other European countries and then in the different cities of the USSR, even Siberia."
Those were the years of stardom for the quartet. From 1973 to 1975 the quartet performed 26 pieces written for quartet by Armenian composers; experts consider this a unique undertaking. Today, the 46 string quartet recordings by these talented musicians are kept in the record library of Radio Armenia.