My Biography
Setrak Setrakian, Lebanese Composer and Pianist

Date and Place of Birth:1938 Beirut,Nationality:Lebanese

Music Education:
----------------
1950-1960 I have studied piano, solfege, theory and harmony with

Prof. Ernest Chouha in "Ernest Chouha" Music College in Aleppo.

1961-1962 I have studied piano, harmony with Prof. T. Succar, Mrs.

Turkiyeh and Prof. Michel Tcheskinov in the National Conservatoire of

Lebanon.

1962-1964 I have studied in the National Conservatoire of Damascus

harmony and composition with Prof. Sergey Schydril.

1964-1965 I have studied piano and composition with Prof. Gunther

Kohl in Jerusalem.

1966-1970 In Aleppo and Damascus I have given lessons of piano and

harmony.

1971-1972 I have been invited to "Komitas" Conservatoire of Yerevan

to specialize with the following professors:

1) Etvart Mirzoyan Composition

2) Etvart Baghdasarian Harmony

3) Krikor Hakhinian Polyphony

4) Kevork Armenian Orchestration

5) Elenora Atamian Piano

6) Aved Derderian Opera Composition

1974-1978 I was professor of piano in College Mont la Salle, Ain

Saadeh Beirut.

1978-1980 I was professor of piano in College des Apotre, Jounieh

Beirut.

1980-1985 Professor of piano in Beirut. (personal lessons)

1985-1988 Professor of piano and music in the Armenian Theological

Seminary of the Catholicosate of Cilicia Beirut.

1986-1987 Professor of piano and harmony in P. Ganatchian Music

College, Beirut.

1987 -1999 Director and Professor of piano, harmony, composition,

and music analysing, in P. Ganatchian Music College, Beirut.

N.B. In 1994 I have been awarded by the Catholicosate KAREKINE II, the

medal of hon

Woah, what for an impressive vita! It is great to have someone here with such a profound background!

Your etude composition sounds VERY virtuos to me, especially those LH/RH alternating super fast arpeggios, and very profound played.
From the sound side your piano comes very brillant to me (almost too brillant). Even on the softer parts the sound gets never mellow - I miss a bit some lyrical moments, maybe too because of the neverending bright sound. Or is it a digital piano you play on?

Hello Olaf Schmidt,

Well thank you for your nice compliments for my music,

For sure I am happy to be as a new member in Piano Society, and for sure it's nice to know a gentle man musician and Pianist like you person.

Kind regrads
Setrak Setrakian

You have a long list of great accomplishments and your compositions sounds challenging. Is it a MIDI file or did you play this on a keyboard?

Setrak Setrakian, Concert Etude No.1 Score PDF

Obviously very well played, too bad the piano sound itself is not that pleasant to the ear.

A fascinating composition indeed, with it surrealistic waltz tune interspersed with frantic cadenzas. And super virtuosic, no doubt ! A bit reminiscent of Sorabji in these cataclysmic climaxes. I also seem to hear some (middle-) eastern influences here and there.

But I believe this to be a digital rendition. These machine-gun octave runs sound like glissandi sometimes, I doubt that even a pianist like Hamelin could play them like that. Second, the way the sound fades in and out in a very unnatural way. Also, the per-bar metronome marks in the score (although that could be common in comtemporary music, I am not sure).

So Mr. Setrakian, could you clarify whether this is a real performance or a MIDI rendering, or perhaps something in between ? That is simething we need to know on this forum.

Thank you for the compliment about my composition, but must believe that I do played in same speed of the midi rendering.

Per-bar metronome marks can be used in contemporary music for sure,

This concert Etude I play all time at my home, I think it's not forbidden to use midi rendering, anyway one day I will record real in studio and post it as real mp3, I didn’t record it till now because of Lebanon very bad economic situation.

I joined to this forum to have a page of my composition and my piano performing mp3s that was recorded during in my 55 years life experience's as a composer and pianist.

No, it is not forbidden. But we had long discussions on this forum about midi versus real recordings, and we did decide quite firmly that we will no longer accept midi renderings except perhaps in very special circumstances. We would very much prefer a real recording of this intrigueing work, even if that is not a studio quality recording. I can imagine the situation in Lebanon not making it easy to produce a studio recording, but most recordings here are not studio quality anyway so do not worry about that too much.

A number of pianists here use a portable MP3 recorder like the Edirol R9, which enables you to make good quality recordings anywhere you want, provided you have a decently tuned piano. That could be an option for you too, you can read about it here

http://www.rolandus.com/products/produc ... jectId=757


We would like that, but the rule is that Piano Society Composers must first feature as a pianist with at least one conventional acoustic recording (that could be music by yourself or other composers).

Thank you for your reply,

Here I send my CDs at CdBaby

www.cdbaby.com/cd/setrak
www.cdbaby.com/cd/setrak2
www.amazon.com

Hi again,

This link contain some of my old recorded in studio real mp3 , I be happy happy if you listen them and tell me if I can upload to Piano Society.

http://www.mp3.com.au/artist.asp?id=28630

Kind regards
Setrak Setrakian

I am not sure how to get hold of these recordings unless I rip them off the audio stream directly to a microphone (the Edirol). So it is possible but I assume you only mean the recordings at the link to mp3.com? The onces to the recordings must for certain be copyrighted.

Also, I have now added you as a pianist on the site with the Debussy recording.

Just added you as a member composer on the site.