Merited Pedagogue of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, pianist and professor Yakov Zargaryan has passed away. He was 94 years old.

Born in 1925 in Yerevan, Yakov Zargaryan graduated from Alexander Spendiaryan Music School and Nizhni Novgorod Conservatory and went on to teach at Tchaikovsky Music School in Yerevan.

He has performed as a soloist and given performances with orchestras in Moscow, Rostov-na-Don, Donestk, Tbilisi and Italy. In the 1960s, he performed Arno Babajanyan’s “Heroic Ballad” and George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody” (blues style) during ballets at the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet of Armenia.

Zargaryan has also lectured at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory and is the author of books devoted to a piano teaching methodology, as well as memoirs, essays and articles.