Jean Ter-Merguerian was a French-Armenian virtuoso violinist and violin pedagogue.
Biography
Jean Ter-Merguerian has got the first prize for violin at the Marseille Conservatoire at the age of 11. In the same year, his first recital took place, where he performed Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor and Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor with conductor André Audoli. In 1947 he immigrated in Soviet Armenia, where he continued his musical studies in Yerevan with prof. Karp Dombaïev and then in the Moscow Conservatory in the class of David Oistrakh. Jean Ter-Merguerian is a prizewinner of international violin competitions, such as Prague Spring, Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Queen Elisabeth in Bruxelles. He also got the first Grand Prix at the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. Along with his concert activities, in ex-USSR, Western Europe, Lebanon, South America, the United States, and Canada, he gave lectures at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. He got the title of "People's Artist of the Armenian SSR". In 1981 he moved to his birthplace of Marseille. In 1975, during his USA tour, he played in Boston the Violin Concerto by Brahms; The story goes that, at the conclusion of the concert, the conductor Arthur Fiedler, who was very hard to please and given to lavishing praise, embraced the young violinist on stage with paternal love and wished him success. This was the ringing endorsement of the talent of Jean Ter Merguerian, who had just given his first performance in the United States. His solo performances were accompanied by orchestras of different countries conducted by famous conductors, also Aram Khachaturian having conducted his own violin concerto. Jean Ter-Merguerian was also member of juries of international competitions: "Paganini" in Genoa, Italy, "Sarasate" in Pamplona, Spain, "Tchaikovsky" in Moscow and in Yerevan. He lived in France, giving master classes there and abroad. He played on a Nicolò Amati violin. Jean Ter-Merguerian died of cancer, after a long illness at his home, in Marseille, on 29 September 2015. He is survived by his wife, the pianist Lilia, his son Vagram and his daughter.
Quotes from colleagues (in original language)
„J'ai une grande admiration pour Jean. Sa sonorité, sa technique et sa musicalité sont parfaites....C'est un très grand artiste, un violoniste sensationnel...“
„Le violoniste le plus doué de sa génération.“
„Jean Ter-Merguerian n'est pas seulement un grand violoniste, il est un grand artiste.“
„La pus belle technique d'archet du monde tout instrument à corde confondu.“
„Jean Ter-Merguerian is a gentleman among violinists. He has extraordinary technical skills and a deep musicality.“
Recordings
No official recital and concerts recordings by Jean Ter-Merguerian exists. Only two CD-Rs of live and archive broadcast material have been released. The 1966 Armenian Radio broadcast recording of Bach Double Concerto is part of a 2CDs compilation dedicated to his colleague, the violinist Anahit Tsitsikian. In 1999 Jean Ter-Merguerian recorded his only commercial release: 's Violin Sonata , with the composer himself at the piano. Armenian Radio TV archives are full of Jean Ter-Merguerian's recordings, yet to be discovered.
