Armenia to form state funeral commission for director Nikolay Tsaturyan

The Armenian government will establish a state funeral commission for acclaimed theater and film director Nikolay Tsaturyan, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports said on Friday, following his death at the age of 81.

Tsaturyan, a People’s Artist of Armenia, was born in Yerevan on Jan. 8, 1945. He graduated from the directing department of the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts and Theater under renowned director Vardan Ajemyan and later trained in Moscow with filmmakers Andrei Tarkovsky, Semyon Tumanov and Georgiy Daneliya.

He worked at the Hayfilm Studio alongside leading Armenian directors Henrik Malyan, Frunze Dovlatyan and others, serving as assistant director on films such as We Are Our Mountains and The Saroyan Brothers.

For nearly two decades, Tsaturyan directed productions at the Sundukyan National Academic Theater, staging works by writers including William Saroyan, Alexander Ostrovsky and Pierre Beaumarchais. From 1992 to 2004, he headed Yerevan’s Metro Theater, before later serving as artistic director and adviser at the Vardan Ajemyan State Drama Theater in Gyumri.

Tsaturyan also taught at the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema for decades and directed productions in Moscow, Kyiv, Georgia, Beirut and New York. Over a career spanning more than 50 years, he worked with some of Armenia’s best-known actors, including Sos Sargsyan and Mher Mkrtchyan.