The Garbis Aprikian Choir (Yerkchakhoump) Students, principal, and teachers at the front. Photo taken in 1953 - Alexandria - Egypt. Garbis Aprikian is a musician from the Armenian Diaspora. He composed many vocal and instrumental works in which Western musical technique (counterpoint, fugue) marries Armenian melodies. As a performer, Garbis Aprikian has directed for about fifty years the Armenian mixed chorus of Paris Sipan-Komitas. His contribution in the European knowledge of the works of Komitas, Ganatchian or Alemshah is crucial. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1926, Garbis Aprikian took part in the cultural and artistic life of this cosmopolitan city when he was very young. He studied at primary school "Armenian National Boghossian," then the American College. From the age of ten he began a serious musical learning with a student of Pietro Mascagni, the maestro Frapicini who took care of his artistic education: piano, then harmony, counterpoint and fugue. In 1948, Garbis Aprikian founded the mixed chorus Hamazkaine with which he gave, in Alexandria and in Cairo, a series of concerts. The success encouraged members of the association Houssaper to assign him a scholarship to complete his training in Europe. Garbis Aprikian arrived in Paris where he studied composition and conducting of orchestra at the Ecole Normale of Music with Simone Plé-Caussade, Tony Aubin and Jean Fournet and took a course of musical aesthetics by Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire national. The Armenian mixed chorus then sought him to replace Kourkène Alemshah, conductor and composer of talent gone to middle age.Voir la traduction– avec Alice Momdjian, Louise Sarkissian, Chouchan Ajemian, Vana Melikian, Sirvart Djelalian, Garbis Aprikian, Lucie Alexanian, Elbis Mandjelikian, Anahid Piliguian, Maggie Arpie Boghossian, Shahanig Chaderdjian et Hourie Der Sarkissian.
