Jeanette Yanikian

Yanikian died in 2008 after battling a prolonged illness. Andriessen's five-part opera, La Commedia (2008), and David Lang’s evening-length work for string orchestra, darker (2010), are dedicated to Yanikian.

Yanikian was married to Dutch composer Louis Andriessen in 1996, whom she met in 1957 while he was studying in the Hague. They lived together in Amsterdam and were partners for over 40 years.

Working as a visual and sound artist, Yanikian's performance “Aorta” was shown at the 1987 Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria. Based on Yanikian's own research into the processes of the human body, "Aorta" used stethoscopes, intravenous sensors, and other medical equipment to explore the sonic perceptibility of heartbeats, respiration, and circulation.

Yanikian played electric guitar and bass guitar. She performed and recorded the collectively-composed opera Reconstructie (Steim, 1969) by Louis Andriessen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Misha Mengelberg, Peter Schat and Jan van Vijmen [nl], and also recorded several albums with the Dutch new music ensemble, Hoketus. These albums include Tam Tam / Bint (Composers’ Voice, 1981) Balans (Composers’ Voice, 1986) and Mausoleum / Hoketus (Composers’ Voice, 1992).

Jeanette Yanikian (July 1935 – February 2008) was a guitarist, performance artist, and therapist who was born in Baghdad, Iraq and worked in the Netherlands.