Maro Ajemian

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Maro Ajemian

| image = Maro Ajemian in late 1950s.jpg

| caption = Maro Ajemian in late 1950s

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_date = {{birth date|1921|07|09}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{death date and age|1978|09|18|1921|07|09}}

|death_place = Houston, Texas, U.S.

| origin =

| genre = Classical

| occupation = Performer

| instrument = Piano

| website =

}}

{{Short description|American pianist}}

Maro Ajemian ({{langx|hy|Մարօ Աճէմեան}}; July 9, 1921 – September 18, 1978) was an American pianist. Ajemian's career in contemporary music grew from her Armenian heritage. She became known as a contemporary pianist after performing the U.S. premiere of Aram Khachaturian's Piano Concerto, which she chose to play based on their shared Armenian heritage.{{Cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936622,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215042335/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936622,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 15, 2008|title=TIME – The Armenian Sisters|accessdate=Feb 26, 2021}}

Ajemian studied at the Juilliard School of Music. On March 14, 1942, she gave the American premiere of Aram Khachaturian's Piano Concerto in D flat with the Juilliard Graduate Orchestra under Albert Stoessel.Liner notes to the Moura Lympany/Anatole Fistoulari recording, Everest 3303 She later performed the piece on a cross-country tour. Following her performances of the Piano Concerto, Ajemian began meeting contemporary composers and, together with her sister, the violinist Anahid Ajemian, she became known as a champion of new music, presenting the premieres of many new works by American composers. Among these were John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, Henry Cowell, Ernst Krenek, Lou Harrison, and Gunther Schuller. Cage dedicated his Sonatas and Interludes to her and she made the first recording of them for Dial Records in 1951.{{cite book |last1=Iddon |first1=Martin |title=John Cage and Peter Yates: Correspondence on Music Criticism and Aesthetics |date=14 November 2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-48006-2 |page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cIHCDwAAQBAJ&dq=Maro+Ajemian+Dial+Records+in+1951&pg=PA52 |language=en}}

Ajemian was particularly fond of the music of Hovhaness, a fellow Armenian American, and co-founded a New York City-based organization, the Friends of Armenian Music Committee, which promoted his music during the 1940s, presenting annual concerts in such high-profile venues as Town Hall. These concerts were well reviewed by such critics as Lou Harrison, Virgil Thomson, and Olin Downes, and served to launch Hovhaness into the national spotlight.

She died of heart valve failure at her home in Houston, Texas at the age of 57. A memorial service was held at St. Vartan’s Cathedral in Manhattan, New York City.https://www.newspapers.com/image/719756817/?match=1&terms=maro%20ajemian{{cite news |last1=Fox |first1=Margalit |title=Anahid Ajemian, Violinist and New-Music Champion, Dies at 92 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/arts/music/anahid-ajemian-violinist-and-new-music-champion-dies-at-92.html |work=The New York Times |date=1 July 2016}}