Mikael Tariverdiev's 80th birthday anniversary

Today, August 15, is the 80th birthday anniversary of the great composer Mikael Tariverdiev.

He died 15 years ago, but his music still tops the lists of hit parades. Some o the great composer's works are even premiered. "All the good things I was taught by my mother," he used to say. The only child he was brought up in an atmosphere of love and austerity.

His teacher, great composer Aram Khachaturyan said that Mikael "rode into the Gnessin State Musical College mounted on a white horse." It was impossible to live in Moscow on scholarship, a rouble a day, and Mikael and his friends had to unload freight cars.

"We thought we were Rastignacs seeking to conquer Moscow. Although poor, we had everything ahead, Tariverdiev wrote in his memoires.

Tariverdiev's music arouses a feeling of nostalgia many people round the world must have felt.

The Mikael Tariverdiev international competition of organists will open in Kaleningrad in three weeks, reports Vesti.ru.