Death of Angelo Ephrikian (October 30, 1982)

Musicologist Angelo Ephrikian was one of the rediscoverers of the work of Antonio Vivaldi in Italy. 

He was born on October 20, 1913, in Treviso, Italy. His father, Sukias-Hagop Ephrikian (1873-1952), was a former member of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Venice and author of a valuable Illustrated Dictionary of the Homeland in two volumes (1902-1903), who worked at a local printing shop. Angelo Ephrikian received training in violin and composition but attended law school and started working as a lawyer, until he gave up his legal carer during World War II to join the partisan forces in the resistance to the fascist regime.  

After the war, Ephrikian entered the musical field and debuted as a conductor in Venice in 1945. His study of Vivaldi’s vast output led him to organize the Instituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi in Venice with conductor Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973) in 1947. He subsequently conducted the chamber orchestra of the Scuola Veneziana. He also prepared a complete edition of Vivaldi’s works (1947–72) with Malipiero and others. In 1971, he became director of the Bologna Philharmonic Orchestra and served as conductor of the Angelicum Chamber Orchestra in Milan from 1978. Ephrikian also did much to promote Monteverdi, Marcello, Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, and other Italian masters of the past.  

Angelo Ephrikian passed away on October 30, 1982, in Rome. His daughter Laura Gaiané Efrikian is an actress and his son Gianni (Gian Claudio Vartan) Ephrikian is an orchestra director.