Manoug Parikian


Manoug Parikian was a British concert violinist and violin professor.

Early life

Parikian was born in Mersin to Armenian parents. He studied in London.

Career

Parikian made his solo début in 1947 and led several orchestras - the Liverpool Philharmonic, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, the Yorkshire Sinfonia from 1976 to 1978 - and was musical director of the Manchester Camerata from 1980 to 1984. He also led the English Opera Group Orchestra between 1949 and 1951, and participated in various Aldeburgh Festival concerts as a chamber musician as well as in opera productions.
He was an admired teacher at the Royal Academy of Music. He also championed contemporary composers, many of whom wrote works for him: examples include Thea Musgrave's Colloquy, Gordon Crosse's Violin Concerto No. 2, Alexander Goehr's Violin Concerto and Hugh Wood's Violin Concerto.
Benjamin Britten also composed for Parikian a cadenza to Mozart's Adagio for Violin and Orchestra K261 in 1951, and was assisted by Parikian when revising the solo part of his own violin concerto, originally composed in 1938-39.

Personal life

In 1957, he married the musician turned antiquarian bookseller Diana Carbutt, who was divorced from the conductor Neville Marriner, with whom she had one son, the clarinettist Andrew Marriner, and one daughter, the writer Susie Harries. They had two sons together.
Parikian died in Oxford in 1987, aged 67. On the day of his death BBC2 featured a performance of his, in the Antonio Stradivari Gala Celebration. His death was announced after the broadcast.