Maia Aprahamian (1935-2011)
Maia Aprahamian was born in NYC on Jan. 8, 1935. She graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a masters in composition. She became a member of the Orthodox Church in 2001 after moving to CA. She is a composer of opera, ballet, choral and instrumental works, and was Composer-in-Residence for the SF Choral Artists in 2005. A large work, Emergence, was presented for the 50th anniversary of the UN in San Francisco. She has composed music for the Orthodox Church services. Her Trisagion and Cherubic Hymn were sung at the Psalm conference in Chicago in 2006, and Zachariah’s Prophecy is published in the new Liturgy book from St Vladimir’s Seminary. She has completed an opera based on the Tolstoy story, The Three Holy Hermits, incorporating thematic material from the Orthodox services. Another opera, The Treatment Room, is for six singers as multiple characters, and chronicles the lives of four patients over two days in a chemo ward. Her most recent opera is based on the book, Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man, by Robert McCloskey, commissioned by the Opera House Arts in Stonington, ME.
