Komitas

Soghomon Gevorki Soghomonyan – “Komitas” (Սողոմոն Գևորգի Սողոմոնյան – "Կոմիտաս" in Armenian) (1869-1935)

Komitas (a name he obtained when he was ordained priest, remembering a 7th century Armenian Catholic who was also a hymn writer) was born on September 26, 1869 in Kütahya, Ottoman Empire and died on October 22, 1935 in Paris, France, was an Armenian priest (from here the other names of "Komitas Vardapet", meaning the priest Komitas), composer, choir leader, singer, music ethnologist, music pedagogue and musicologist. He was the first extra-European to be admitted into the International Music Society, of which he was a co-founder. He gave many lectures and performances throughout Europe and near East thus presenting Armenian popular music to the wider world. He is considered the father of the modern classical Armenian music. He was a witness of the Armenian genocide in 1915. After that, he suffered great mental troubles and the last 16 years of his life was passed in a psychiatric clinic in Paris where he died.