Death of Elvina Makarian (July 9, 2007)

Elvina Makaryan was one of the stars of Armenian and Soviet songs in a brilliant career marked by triumph and tragedy.  

She was born in Yerevan, on August 16, 1950. She attended the Sayat-Nova Music School from 1957 onwards. She graduated with honors from the Tchaikovsky Music School and later Komitas Conservatory.  

In 1962, she took part and won the School City Olympiad. She mainly performed the songs of Charles Aznavour and Roberto Loretti, accompanying herself on the piano. Noticing the singer’s talent, composer Martin Vardazaryan invited her to his newly created jazz quartet, in which she performed for the first time on television. Later, she received an offer from composer Robert Amirkhanyan to sing in Krunk, his vocal-instrumental ensemble, where she improved as a jazz singer. In 1967, Konstantin Orbelyan, artistic director of the State Pop Orchestra of Armenia, invited her to his ensemble, after which she began taking part in international tours. The singer mastered English, Russian, French and Italian, and was exposed to world culture and interacted with foreign musicians. She won the main prize at the Young Voices all-Union competition held in Moscow for her performance of Robert Amirkhanian’s song “Where are you, guys?” From the 1970s onwards, she participated in many international festivals and performed on various stages of the world. 

During the Soviet years, singers fought for the right to sing, and Elvina Makaryan fought for the form, style, and theme of singing. She was in love with American jazz, and for this reason, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR restricted her freedom, somehow placing her under “house arrest” in the 1980s by paying her a salary on the condition that she did not go to work. She moved to the United States in 1989, releasing three CDs. She opened her own studio, shot videos, and wrote songs. She returned to Yerevan in the early 1990s and released several hits. She lived and created in Yerevan until the end of the 1990s, after which she permanently moved to Los Angeles. She lost her twenty-six-year-old son, Roman Avanessian, in 2004. She experienced her life’s greatest tragedy, but continued composing and making new projects, but she committed suicide in her home in Los Angeles on July 9, 2007. In her will, she asked for her body to be cremated, and her ashes scattered in the ocean.