Raphael Minaskanian Transcript and Audio

Part 01

I was born in 1941 (1320) in Tehran.

My parents were the Russian immigrants –
they met each other here in Iran and got married.

They were both active in music.
My mother was a qualified pianist and my father was a violinist.

I have heard piano and violin since I was an infant.

When I was 2, I pounded on the piano keys to play.

My father was self-employed.
My mother was daughter of Arezooman – you certainly know him.

He founded the industry of Sausage and Ham in Iran
so my father continued running the factory;

but unfortunately the factory was confiscated.

I have a brother and a sister.

Me and my sister were Mr. Onanian’s trainees for piano

but my sister did not continue playing the piano professionally
and travelled to America to stay with me.

She got married and stayed living there in America.

Some years after my sister travelled to America,
my brother travelled to America, too.

He was also active in music; pop, bass guitar and keyboard.

He has played with some Iranian singers for a short time
like Googoosh, Martik and Andi;

but I don’t know exactly about these music bands.
He doesn’t play with any music band recently.

When I was 6, my mother took me to her piano teachers

and I started learning music including solfege
and piano – the teacher was Mrs. Haghnazarian.

At 9, Mr. Onanian was my piano teacher – he was also a Russian immigrant.

He was Armenian but didn’t know Armenian
so we spoke with each other in Russian.

I was the trainees of this great teacher till I was 14.
Then, Mr. Emanuel Melik Slanian came to Iran from Germany.

Mr. Onanian travelled to America.
Therefore, I seriously decided to continue learning and playing the piano.

Piano Recital,
Emanuel Melik Slanian,
Vahdat Hall, 1996

Mr. Slanian came to Iran from Germany in 1955.

He was in Germany while the second World War, in Berlin.

He was so talented that his parents
took him to Germany since his childhood.

They lived in Tabriz (a city at north-west of Iran)
and he travelled to Germany with his mother.

He passed all the courses at Germany Conservatories
in Berlin and Hamburg.

His house was bombarded in Hitler’s Era, I think.

He had many hard times there until coming back Iran in 1955.

There was a great change in teaching piano
and playing the piano at that time – rather more seriously than before.

The teachers taught many new thing to the trainees.
That’s why I could learn many things at 13 or 14.

Piano Recital, Zipper Hall, 2014

I passed primary school at a Private French School.

There, Mademoiselle Marika taught French.
She was Greek but she taught French.

All the teachers there were French.
So, I learned French, Russian and Armenian since childhood.

I learned Persian better at the grades of 5 and 6
because I was rather weak at Persian Language.

I got my diploma at Firooz Bahram High School
(one of the oldest high schools in Tehran). Then, I travelled to America.

Photos of Raphael’s family

I wanted to study Medicine in America
so I studied the pre-medical course for 2 years.

There was a professor at the university that heard my playing piano.

He told me not to waste my time there to study Medicine
and work on learning and playing piano, instead.

I asked him whether I could do both or not
– studying Medicine and playing the piano.

He told me that I could not do both at the same time
because I was talented enough in piano playing.

I had to choose between studying Medicine and playing the piano.

So, he directed me in learning and playing piano.

I was at City College in Los Angeles at that time to become ready for UCLA.

That professor discovered my talent in piano there.

I didn’t study at UCLA but my classes were held there.

I received a student grant on behalf of City College
in Los Angeles for Mount Saint Mary’s College.

It was a college for girls but
there were 6 boy music trainees that they were all granted.

Mr. Aube Tzerko was my teacher at UCLA;
his classes were held at UCLA.

He also held public classes, very instructive and interesting.

– What did you study there?

– Music, the course I was accepted for.

– I mean was it music composition?

– No, playing the piano.
There were also other courses related to the music.

– Of which of the musicians you were affected by?

– Of all the great ones.

– Any special music genre?

– It was periodic for me. I was more affected by Beethoven
because I know him as the God of Music.

But all the great musicians affected me
including Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schuman.

I cannot say that which of them has affected me more, all the same.

I am not interested in the super modern music
because I cannot deal with that.

The contemporary music of the 20th century is a challenge for me.

Mr. Slanian, the great pianist, has wrote some pieces for piano solo
but I never play them since he was alive. I afraid that ….

– That you may heart his feelings?

– Of course not. I afraid that he found fault with me because
I wanted to play the pieces he has composed.

I could learn playing his pieces just after his death –
I played his three pieces at a concert in memory of him.

There was Iranian Theme for all these three pieces:
Chahargah, Armenian (on Comita theme), Azari (Caucasian Theme).

Piano Recital, Vahdat Hall, 2004

I lived in America for about 6 years but I had to leave there.

Me and my father had travelled to USA
by the Green Card, immigration visa.

It was a rule that anyone with immigration visa
had to serve the military service.

Unfortunately, I was in America at the time of Vietnam War
so they ordered me the draft of A1 to go to Vietnam.

Well… I slunk! I travelled to England because I loved London.

There was a great instructive musical atmosphere.

I had a good teacher there named Ilona Kabos;
you can see her photo here at my back.

I have the photos of all my teachers,
except my first teacher. I couldn’t find her photo.

I started learning piano since I was 9
and continued learning till I was 33.

During these 23 years, I also held some concerts
at the universities or the institutes, beside learning the piano.

There were music clubs even in the villages of England
and they invited me to play their bad pianos.

Of course it helped me to gain more experiences. Great!

– When did you travel to England?

– in 1967.

– You stayed there?

– Yes, until 1978, a year before the Islamic Revolution.

– Haven’t you travel to Italy?

– I often travelled to Italy.
I had another piano teacher in Italy named Mr. Schnabel.

He lived near Lake Como, known for its dramatic scenery.

I sometimes travelled there and stayed for one or three months;

I had piano classes with him and learnt much of him.

Mrs. Kabos and Mr. Schnabel were my piano teachers at the same time;
the former in London and the latter in Italy.

Both were teachers in New York.

I attended Mrs. Kabos’s classes at Julliard School
and we were also in the same flight.

She had phobia of airplane
and someone should hold her hand while flying.

Mr. Schnabel has sometimes travelled to America
and I could visit him whenever I was in America.

Some time, they were both in America and I tried to visit them both
but I didn’t let them know about such meetings.

Of course they knew about that. Finally,
I made them visit each other, therefore, they made friends.

Photos with Mr. Schnabel

– What is your favorite music genre, rather than the classic one?

– I love listening to the real folklore music.
Of course the original versions.

Imagine that there are many changing
versions of Mozart’s symphonies, rather than the original ones.

I love the high level of Iranian Folk Music.

You may know about the Youth Music Festival;

I was of the juries and the closing ceremony was held some weeks ago.

There were great performers in this genre of Iranian Music.

There was a girl who played Daf (an Iranian Musical Instrument)
very well – she made me really crazy! Daf solo.

I wanted to search and find her. She really performed dramatically.

– What did music give you? What did you give it back?

– It gave me LOVE. I gave it LOVE, too.

We were real lovers! You must love the music
otherwise you are not a musician.