About Anahit Tsitsikian

“My student, Anahit Tsitsikian, possesses great musical ability and, with proper work, she will undoubtedly become a remarkable and quite possibly a prominent violinist.” (1945)

GRIGORY GINSBURG
Professor of Leningrad (S-Petersburg) Conservatory

“At the last demonstration of the bow department of the Yerevan Conservatory in Moscow, A. Tsitsikian and A. Aliyev attracted everybody’s attention. Tsitsikian has a distinctive playing manner which reveals her deep musical sensitivity. The caressing lightness of the sound, the dainty sense of instrumental timbre, and elegance of technique - all this was brightly and clearly indicated by her while performing the “Poems” by Shosson and the concerto by Khachaturian” (from the book “Young Musicians.”, 1949)

K. ALEXANDROV
Musical musicologist, Moscow

“I have never listened to such a Komitas! Undoubtedly, Anahit Tsitsikian is an incomparable performer of his work.”, (1965)

HAKOP ASATURIAN
Researcher of Komitas life, Editor of “Lraber .” newspaper, USA

“I would like to express my deep satisfaction with the creative partnership I shared with this wonderful violinist. It's a great pleasure to play with her. The amazing sound of her instrument, the delicacy of her phrasing, the width and force of the play, the scale of the performance, all these are qualities of a performer whose has been gifted with great talent.”, (1972)

MAXIM SHOSTAKOVICH
Conductor, Moscow

“Thank you, daughter, for bringing the violin of the unforgettable David Davtian back to life and making it tremble.”, (1953)

AVETIK ISAHAKIAN
Poet

“I am very delighted with the talented interpretation of my concerto and am truly amazed with the maturity and skill of the young performer Anahit Tsitsikian. God grant us that our Merited Artists play in the way that this girl plays.”, (Oct 1943)

ARAM KHACHATURIAN
Composer

“ Anahit Tsitsikian is a very talented performer. She truly feels the phrase, which is the most valuable trait of any performer.”, (1949)

ISRAEL YAMPOLSKY
Professor, musicologist, editor of the “Music Encyclopedia .”, Moscow

“First of all, I would like to express the pleasure that I received from the performance of Anahit Tsitsikian. She is a gifted violinist with a unique, original, and distinctive gift. The overall impression is splendid. From a technical standpoint, she can excellently execute what she plays. She has a sort of wisdom and everything is wonderfully envisaged .”, (1948)

YEVGENI GOUZIKOV
Violinist, Professor of Moscow Conservatory

“Tsitsikian is a very gifted violinist with a warm sound and temperament. In Khachaturian Concerto, she unfolded herself in an unexpected way. Overall, her performance made a magnificent impression on me: a vivid sound and brightness of performance ….”, (1948)

DMITRI TSIGANOV
Violinist, Professor of Moscow Conservatory

“Post-graduate student of the Moscow Conservatory, Anahit Tsitsikian is a gifted violinist with outstanding musical qualities. Her performance is characterized by the presence of fervent and emotional elements, melodiousness, beautiful sound, as well as the feeling of style and interesting musical initiative. All this allows us to consider Tsitsikian a highly qualified violinist with a positive perspective for musical growth .”, (1953)

KONSTANTIN MOSTRAS
Violinist, Professor of Moscow Conservatory

“Anahit Tsitsikian is one of the leading performers in Soviet Armenia. Having a bright performing individuality, sense of performance style, warmth of the sound and depth of the performance, Tsitsikian attracts a large number of listeners by her performance. Often performing during concerts arranged at the Union of Composers, Ms. Tsitsikian has proven as a most active propagandist for the music of classics and Soviet Armenian composers. Providing immense creative assistance to composers in producing new violin works, she very often appears as their first interpreter .”, (1959)

EDWARD MIRZOYAN
Composer, National Artist of the USSR,Armenia

“The prominent musician and violinist Anahit Tsitsikian is an artist with a strongly pronounced individuality. The nature of her performance is covered by romanticism; her emotionality never appears to contravene the sense of proportion and the purity of the taste, thus allowing her to accomplish big dynamic contrasts of the sound palette. Possessing a large sound volume and an exceptional virtuosity, the artist is free of patterns and skillfully uses all arsenals of expressive means of her gift. She can equally grasp a passionate dramatic effect and a poetic lyricism and uses these contrasting chiaroscuros with unique nobility and unpretentiousness .”, (1960)

AVET GABRIELIAN
Violinist, Merited Artist of the Armenian SSR, Moscow

“I was favored to be one of the first listeners of the Concerto-Poem by Eric Harutyunian performed by Anahit Tsitsikian. She is a prominent violinist! .”, (1961)

ANDRE GETLER
Violinist, a friend of B.Bartok, Hungary

“You (talking to composer Erik Harutyunian) can write music infinitely, because you have such a performer as Anahit Tsitsikian.”, (1962)

Dmitri Klebanov
Composer, Moscow

“I have had occasion to listen to Anahit Tsitsikian play many times in Yerevan and Moscow. However here (In Cairo -edit.) Anahit completely changed. Her violin seemed to breathe, tremble, cry and laugh. The bow slid over the strings now wrathfully and with agitation, and then with anguish and tenderness, and then irately beat them like it wanted to break their tranquil quiet. And, torn off the instrument, “Kroonk” – crane- stretched its wings afar to the celestial marquee, and “Tsirani Tsar” - apricot tree- was striking with its limbs and groaning, but, as in the past, stood further withstanding the sandstorm on its burnt rock cliffs….”, (from the book “Caravans Are Still on the Way.”, 1964)

SILVA KAPUTIKIAN
Poetess, Armenia

“Dear Anahit, I listened to your records with great pleasure and admiration for your eloquent and rhythmically fascinating playing!.”, (1970)

JOSEPH SZIGETI
Prominent Hungarian violinist

“Dear Anahit, I have to tell you how great was my enjoyment of the record of the Concerto-Poem by Harutyunian. What a wonderful and strong piece! How much delicacy and courage of performance! Bravo!.”, (1970)

MANUK PARIKIAN
Violinist, professor of the Royal Academy of Music, London

“In Moscow, many prominent musicians paid attention to the performance by Anahit Tsitsikian mentioning the deep melodiousness in her performance and the delicacy and maturity of conception, vivid sound, and elegance of technique. While lightness and elegance were typical of her play in the past, some major and daring traits have appeared along with the ability to suggest an idea saliently and in a far-reaching way, see and sense the music.
In Tsitsikian's repertoire, along with Russian and foreign classics, there is much Soviet music and, obviously, first of all, Armenian music. The music in her interpretation is poetic, youthfully free, rushing ahead and, at the same time, it is full of strict and wise restraint.”, (Sovietskaya Muzika Magazine, N 12, 1963).

RAFIK STEPANIAN
Musicologist

“Anahit Tsitsikian proved herself as a virtuoso with the most remarkable strength and lucidity of expression, and fiery brilliance…for which reason alone she would rank with the foremost violinists of our time….”, (1965)

NEVIL VIERARATNA
Musical critic, Colombo, Ceylon.

“A few seconds of her play on the stage are enough to be certain that she has a powerful and bright musical individuality. With the warmth and ingenuousness of her performance she immediately grasps and conquers a listener. The charm of her play is not a result of external splendor but an expression of the inner life of the artist, and the sincerity and wealth of her nature.”, (1969)

Music critic of daily “Le Monde.”, Paris