Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was born on June 6, 1903, in Tbilisi, Georgia, to an Armenian family. He moved to Moscow in 1921 and first studied cello at the Gnessin Institute. In 1925, he began studying composition and later transferred to the Moscow Conservatory in 1929, where he studied under Myaskovsky. From early on, he was fascinated by Armenian folk music and Eastern melodies, a style reflected in his First Symphony, which he completed in 1934. Around this time, he married Nina Makarova, a fellow composer and classmate. In 1936, Khachaturian composed a popular Piano Concerto that included Georgian and Armenian musical elements within a romantic style. His 1940 works included music for a production of Lermontov’s Masquerade, which led to a suite evoking early 19th-century St. Petersburg, and a Violin Concerto written for David Oistrakh praised for its brilliance and accessibility. During World War II, he adapted his ballet Happiness into the patriotic Gayaneh, known for the famous 'Sabre Dance.' His Second Symphony, composed in 1943, vividly depicted wartime struggles and ended on an optimistic note. Khachaturian's colorful Third Symphony was met with harsh criticism in 1948 for 'formalism.' He then composed more patriotic pieces, including the Ode in Memory of Lenin in 1949. After Stalin's death in 1953, Khachaturian became active publicly, advocating for eased artistic restrictions in the Soviet Union. He kept composing, teaching, and traveling, and created the large ballet Spartacus in 1956, set in ancient Rome and filled with exotic sounds and rich orchestration. In his later years, Khachaturian composed several concertos and chamber works. He passed away in Moscow on May 1, 1978, leaving a legacy of music influenced by his Armenian heritage and the turbulent history he lived through.