- published: 20 Nov 2012
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Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (Armenian: Արամ Խաչատրյան; Russian: Ара́м Ильи́ч Хачатуря́н; June 6 [O.S. May 24] 1903 – May 1, 1978) was a prominentSoviet Armenian composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music. He is most famous for the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from his ballet Spartacus, and for the "Sabre Dance" from his ballet Gayane and the adagio from the same ballet, much used in films since its first use in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was born in Tiflis, Imperial Russia (now Tbilisi, Georgia) to a poor Armenian family. His father was a bookbinder. In his youth, he was fascinated by the music he heard around him, but at first he did not study music or learn to read it.
In 1920, when Armenia was declared a Soviet republic, Khachaturian joined a propaganda train touring Armenia, populated by Georgian-Armenian artists. The following year he travelled to Moscow to join his brother, the stage director of the Second Moscow Art Theatre. Although he had almost no musical education, Khachaturian showed such great talent that he was admitted to the Gnessin Institute where he studied cello under Sergey Bychkov, and later Andrey Borysyak. In 1925 Mikhail Gnessin started a composition class at the Gnessin Institute, which Khachaturian joined.