Santiago Chotsourian

Santiago Chotsourian
Background information
Birth Name	Santiago Chotsourian
Alias	El Maestro
Born	3 December 1966
Occupation	Conductor, Composer, Musician
Genres	Psychedelic Rock, Experimental Rock, Film Score
Instrument(s)	Piano, Accordion, Keyboards
Years active	1980 - Present
Labels	MeteorCity Records, Small Stone Records, Oui Oui Records
Associated acts	Los Natas, Ararat

El Maestro Santiago Chotsourian is a composer and conductor based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Born in 1966 and active since 1980 at the age of 14 as mentored by Rubens Vitale, he would work in the music world as a conductor for various orchestras in South America, working in classical music, dance and performing arts. He is the older brother of Los Natas guitarist Sergio Chotsourian. The two brothers have collaborated together, namely with Sergio's side project Ararat and on the 2012 film soundtrack Los Salvejes (The Wild Ones).

After having lived and worked two years as a nurse and missionary in Villa 13 de Julio (La Cárcova) together with Father Pepe Di Paola, and a period of three months of formation in the monastery of the Trappist monks of Azul, seven months Santiago moved to Tres Picos, a town near Tornquist, in the province of Buenos Aires, to carry out an experience of hermitic life of contemplative life in the rural chapel of María Auxiliadora, under the dependence of the Archdiocese of Bahía Blanca, at behind the Sierra de la Ventana system and following the tradition of those monks.

Chotsourian would be awarded the Konex Award 2007 and the Jury Konex Awards in 2009 and 2017. He has a degree in Orchestral and Choral Composition and Conducting; PhD candidate in Philosophy (UCA). Artistic director of Arpeggio, the first free regional radio and television channel devoted entirely to classical music, opera, dance and the performing arts. Resident composer of the Group of Puppeteers of the San Martín Theater. He was Director of Music and Dance of the Nation, Director of Musical Studies at the Teatro Colón (PK), and Artistic Director of the Classical (PK), National and Amadeus radio stations. He was in charge of the Center for Experimentation and Musical Studies of the UNSAM, and the diplomas in Uses of voice, Song and Choir; and Composition, with orientation in the scenic and the cinema. Creator and director of the groups Erlebnis and Erfahrung dedicated to the experimentation of the word in the theater of the ear. He specialized in composing live music for silent films after being entrusted with directing the original score for Carl Theodor Dreyer's film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc at the Teatro Colón and at the Biarritz Festival. He collaborated with prestigious international orchestras and choirs and artists of the stature and diversity of Oscar Aráiz, Cristina Banegas, Leo Maslía and Peter Gabriel. He recently published The Manger in the Ear (Lectio_musicae) at the request of Ágape Libros (collection “in dialogue”).

Selected Discography

• Los Natas - Nuevo orden de la libertad (2009, Small Stone Records)
• Ararat - Música de la Resistencia (2009, MeteorCity Records)
• Ararat - Ararat II (2011, Oui Oui)
• Sergio & Santiago Chotsourian - Los Salvajes (Soundtrack) (2012, Oui Oui Records)

External Links

• Discogs
• Article on Infobae
• Article via Cultura
• Article via Fundacion Konex
• Video Interview via Infobae
• Video Interview via Prensa Centro Arminio