Loris Ohannes Chobanian

Winner of many ASCAP awards and grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Cleveland Arts Council, he also received an award for excellence from the University of Loyola, New Orleans, LA. He was the recipient of the 1981 Cleveland Arts Prize.

In 1973 he became the first Guitar Division Chairman of the American String Teachers Association. He organized the first ASTA Guitar Conference in Cleveland, which for the first time brought together the university and college guitar teachers in the US and Canada. The conference became the model that has been emulated by conferences of the Guitar Foundation of America ever since.

In 1960 he moved to the US to study composition at Louisiana State University (1960–1966) where he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees studying with Kenneth Klaus. He performed regularly on WBRZ-TV Baton Rouge, LA, and later in Michigan performing for the National Educational Television. He received the Ph.D. in music composition from Michigan State University (1970) studying with H. Owen Reed.

Chobanian studied the classical guitar with Jacque Tchakerian and in 1955 began performing classical guitar regularly on Baghdad Television and worked at the Khanaqin Oil Company. During 1958–1960 he was appointed Secretary to the Director General of Distribution of Oil in Iraq.

In 1951 he graduated from Baghdad College, a High School administered by American Jesuits from Boston, Mass. For ten years, he joined the Komitas Choir in Baghdad that specialized in singing Armenian folk music.

Loris Ohannes Chobanian (born April 17, 1933) is an American-Armenian composer of classical music, conductor, and guitar and lute teacher and performer. He served as Professor of Composition as well as Composer-in-Residence at Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory.