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Marine Madatyan

Vardan Sardaryan: “There is lack of classiness among us”

During his studies at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory Vardan writes a musical piece breaking one of music composition golden rules. The professor doesn’t approve it; he thinks it is rather a mistake than innovation. Vardan disagrees with this feedback. He explains that following standard rules and thinking inside the box ruin creative process. So he leaves composition department and continues his studies as a pianist. However, the very rule, which caused Vardan to quit his studies at composition department and which had been a common practice for many years, was recognized as outdated the following year. 

Vardan Sardaryan, the owner of V-Sard Music Production Studio didn’t go into detail about his story of leaving the composition department, because later his music writing skills and musical talent were highly appreciated and realized in Armenia and abroad.

In his hometown, Kapan Vardan worked as a music school director for seven years and then moved to Russia. There he met Alexey Garnizov, a famous Russian composer, the owner of one of the most popular recording studios there. Garnizov signed a work contract with Vardan as soon as he heard some of his music.

That was a turning point in Vardan’s music life, which also involved great responsibility. The recording studio was a part of Valery Leontiev’s “Dobroe Serdtse” (Kind Heart) association, and Vardan started collaborating with famous and experiences Russian artists as a songwriter and arranger. 

“Valery Leontev, Boris Moiseev, Irina Allegrova…can’t list all of them. I have written music and orchestrations for many artists. For example, Allegrova’s two songs ‘Podari etu noch’ and ‘Nezakonni Moy’, nearly half of the songs from Leontev’s‘ Polnolunie’ album have been written based on my music”, - notes Vardan. For about three years he worked on music arrangements for Philip Kirkorov’s concerts as well as Yevgeny Petroyan’s and Clara Novikova’s comedy shows. 

The composer’s talent was also noticed and appreciated in Europe. In 2010 Vardan became a member of Ireland’s “International Songwriters Association”. The same year he participated in The UK Songwriting Contest and was awarded a semi-finalist certificate for the song “I’m Leaving”. The song was performed by Armenian artist and co-writer Lilya Barak, who currently lives in the United States.

Vardan, better known by his stage name V-Sard likes to work with talented artists and musicians. He used to be the bandleader of Mister X band. He is the author and arranger of the song “Silence” by artist Mister X (Arthur Hakobyan). V-Sard also did the arrangements for the songs “Adagio”, “Kilikia” and many more.

The composer especially enjoys writing music for films (soundtracks). He has been collaborating with “Versus” film studio. He wrote music for documentary films “Mystery of Minas” and “Lethal Toys”. He has also been collaborating with “Armenia” All-Armenian Fund for many years, writing music for National Fundraising Telethons, which are broadcast annually from Los Angeles, CA. Currently Vardan works as a composer/arranger for “Shoghakat” TV Company.

His answer to the question about where he earned more as a composer in his country or abroad was the following: “No matter how much you earn for your music overseas you are always paid royalties. For instance, if an artist performs your song at a club, he should pay you for performing rights. The same is for shows and TV/radio broadcast. This system is not effective in Armenia yet”.

Nevertheless, it is more important for Vardan to get his music to the right target, to the right artist, than to make money from it. He is even ready to provide his recording studio free of charge to those artists, who will impress him with their soulful performances. In his opinion, Armenia has very few of them. “There is no classiness in our artists’ performances. It doesn’t have to be necessarily a classical piece, but the music interpretation should be classy, melodic and emotional. I have noticed that there is lack of classiness among us, and not only in music field”.

Recently Vardan received a collaboration offer, which will temporarily make him forget about lack of classiness in Armenian pop industry. He is going to collaborate with world famous tenor, professor of Vienna Conservatory Maestro Vahan Mirakian. Vardan will be doing the orchestrations for classical pieces to be included in the artist’s new album. 

Translated by Lilya Maranjyan

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