Grikor Suni

Grikor Mirzaian Suni (; originally Grikor Mirzaian, also Grigor; September 10, 1876 – December 18, 1939) was an Armenian composer and choirmaster. In his hometown of Shushi, Suni became famous for his musical talents and organized his first concert. This would get him in trouble with Russian authorities forcing his chorus out of Shushi where they went on to spread Armenian cultural music around the world. Suni was an instrumental figure in establishing the national identity of Armenian music and considered one of the many founders of modern Armenian music. Biography Grikor Suni came from a family of Armenian meliks (princes) from Syunik. He was the son of the singer and miniaturist Hovhannes Varandetsi and the grandson of the once famous ashug (folk singer) Melik Hovhannes Mirzabekyan. Suni spent much of his childhood in Shushi where he first started to study music. There in the regionally famous Armenian Khandamiryan theater, he gave his first concert with his chorus composed of folk songs he collected from the region. With the money he made from the concert, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he studied music from 1895 to 1904 with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Glazunov and A