[1] After study at the Vienna Music Academy, with Carl Orff at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the University of Michigan, he taught at the Tehran Conservatory.

His early compositions evoke the work of Aram Khachaturian, while his oeuvre as a whole is heavily influenced by Armenian folk and sacred music.

His grandfather, a doctor, liked to play the violin and as a boy Loris enjoyed listening to professional string-players (Russian, Armenian or Polish immigrants) in local cafés.

Despite the lack of a teacher, the boy began to study in earnest; before long he had composed a number of piano pieces, with no formal instruction whatsoever.

He mounted the first Archives exhibition to great success, and began work on an opera based on the epic poem of Rostam and Sohrab.

That same year Tjeknavorian received the Homayoun Order and Medal for Persepolis, his score for the spectacular Son et Lumiere show at the ancient Persian capital.

The audience consisted of dignitaries and heads of state from around the world that had gathered in Iran for the 2500th anniversary of the Persian Empire.

6 ("Pathetique") with the LSO, hailed in Gramophone as "bold and exciting" and by RCA as "an astounding performance of electrifying passion and nobility".

Speaking to the London magazine, Tjeknavorian explained: "Being Christian, the first thing the Armenians did…was to translate the Bible as early as the fourth century AD.

I became so involved in searching through all the manuscripts, it took me 15 years, and I found seven different traditions amounting to something like 30,000 melodies… It was far removed from my original idea of having the melodies just for my own compositional use, and I realized that it was of immense interest to musicologists" (Gramophone, May 1979).

Taking some of the medieval chants he had rediscovered, Tjeknavorian composed the vocal work Life of Christ, first performed during the Festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall by the Ambrosian Singers.

In response, Tjeknavorian organized a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall to raise relief funds for the victims.

The concert featured Plácido Domingo, Mstislav Rostropovich, Alexander Toradze and stars of the New York Metropolitan Opera, including Mirella Freni, Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey and Elena Obraztsova.

Ticket sales for the event raised $500,000 that was sent to Armenia, where Tjeknavorian relocated a few months later, having been appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra (APO) in Yerevan.

For Tjeknavorian, the most important task was rebuilding the cultural life of Gyumri (then Leninakan), Armenia's second largest city, which had been devastated by the earthquake.

Unfortunately, several months later the Soviet ruble was devalued and Tjeknavorian was compelled to seek additional money from private sources.

During this time, his fundraising led to the founding of a symphony orchestra, wind ensemble, choir and dance ensemble, the renovation of the theater and restarting of the Gyumri TV station, and purchasing musical instruments for the orchestra and band, whose instruments had all been destroyed in the earthquake, as well as ten grand pianos for the Arts and Music Academy.

Given the heated controversy and popular passions surrounding the question of independence, the peaceful nature of the victory was unique, reached by Tjeknavorian through the power of music and a positive cultural message.

During the crippling energy blockade between 1992 and 1995 - a result of the Karabakh war - the capital was gripped by shortages of food, water, heat and electricity.

"[6] In 1989, Tjeknavorian was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra (APO).