Jean Ter-Merguerian, born on October 5, 1935 and died September 29, 2015, Jean was a French-Armenian virtuoso violinist and violin pedagogue.
Jean 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 A minor and Mendelssohn’s Concerto E minor.
Jean continued his musical studies in Yerevan with Prof.
Karp Dombayev and then in the Moscow Conservatory in the class of David Oistrakh.
Jean was a prizewinner of international violin competitions, such as Prague Spring (1956), Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Queen Elisabeth in Bruxelles (1963).
He also got the first Grand Prix at the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris (1961).
Jean taught in the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory having simultaneously multiple concerts in ex-USSR, Western Europe, Lebanon, South America, the United States, and Canada.
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 was a member of juries of international competitions: “Paganini” in Italy, “Sarasate” in Spain, “Tchaikovsky” in Moscow and “Khachaturian” in Yerevan.
Leaved in France, giving master classes there and abroad. He played on a Nicolo Amati violin.
Jean died at age 79 of cancer, after a long illness at his home, in Marseille, on 29 September 2015.