Stepanian, Aro (1897-1966)

Russian composer. He began to teach music in the Armenian school of his native town and at Alexandropol, before he was 20. He studied at the Moscow School of Music under Glière and Gnessin, and at the Leningrad Conservatory under Shcherbatchev. He settled as a professor of music at Erevan in Russian Armenia, where he studied the local folksongs.

Works operas Nazar the Brave (1935), David Sassunsky (1937), and The Dawn (1938); three symphonies (1944-53); symphonic poem To the Memory of Twenty-six Commissars; chamber music, instrumental pieces; songs.