House Museum of Aram Khachatryan

The House-Museum has a rich music library - about 2,500 CDs with recordings of classical and contemporary music. There is also a workshop for the restoration of bowed instruments. The museum also houses the State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments.

The house-museum of Aram Khachaturian is located in Yerevan. During his lifetime, the composer managed to get acquainted only with the sketches of the future museum and express his wishes to the famous architect Eduard Altunyan, who was commissioned by the government to design the project.

The basis of the museum was the mansion in which the elder brother of Aram Khachaturian Vaginak lived with his family. It was in this house that Aram Ilyich often stayed when he was in Yerevan.

The mansion has been preserved unchanged, and the two-story superstructure of the House Museum was built on the territory of the garden. The courtyard has been preserved, where a spring-monument was erected for the composer’s 105th anniversary as a gift to the museum from architects S. Gyurzadyan and S. Barseghyan. The facade of the building is framed by five deep arches resembling tuning forks.

The official opening of the museum took place in 1982, after the death of the composer. The established traditions under the leadership of the first director of the House-Museum Gohar Harutyunyan, conductor of the symphony orchestra, honored teacher of the republic, continue and are being developed in a new light, under the strict guidance of the current pianist director, laureate of international competitions, professor of the Yerevan State University. Conservatory Armine Grigoryan.

The museum traditionally hosts musical evenings, meetings with famous cultural figures, festivals, exhibitions, premieres of contemporary Armenian composers. Here are collected letters, manuscripts of scores, books, records, photographs and other materials related to the life and work of the brilliant composer. A. Khachaturian’s son, Karen, donated his father’s personal belongings to the museum: an office, a bedroom, a dining room, a piano, a conductor’s tailcoat and a conductor’s baton, letters and much more from the family archive.

Before and after the opening of the House-Museum, valuable materials began to flow there from various parts of the world. Gradually, the museum was replenished with new relics. One of the exhibits has a very interesting history. This is a piano donated to the House-Museum by Tigran Mostijyan from Sao Paulo. Once (this was in the late 50s), when the composer was touring South America, a passionate admirer of his work T. Mostidzhyan organized a reception in honor of Aram Khachaturian in his home. He bought a piano specifically so that the composer would only touch the keys of the instrument. After Khachaturian played excerpts from some of his compositions, quite unexpectedly the owner of the house gave him a nail in his hands, asking him to scratch his autograph on the lid of the piano. Khachaturian had to be persuaded, and yet the signature was put. Today, this piano occupies its modest place in the museum.

The house-museum of Aram Khachaturian has a bright concert hall with excellent acoustics. The walls of the hall have been hosting leading chamber performers and young musicians for decades.