Arthur Meschian and the Apostles: the birth of Armenian rock

Arthur Meschian wrote Armenian rock songs while the Soviet authorities called him an anti-Soviet propagandist, then spent his days designing buildings. Here is his story and where to start.

By The Armenly team. Written November 11, 2026.

Key findings

  • Arthur Meschian (Արթուր Մեսչյան; Артур Месчян) was born in Yerevan on March 3, 1949. He is an architect, composer, poet, singer and painter, and one of the founders of Armenian rock [1].
  • His band, the Apostles (1968–1979), is described as the first rock band in the Soviet Union to sing in its own national language [1].
  • Catholicos Vazgen I asked him to write a requiem for the victims of the Armenian Genocide. He performed it at Holy Etchmiadzin in 1975, but the Soviet label Melodiya refused to release the recording [1].
  • As an architect he led the new building of the Matenadaran, the institute of ancient manuscripts in Yerevan, finished in 2011 [1].

A rock band in Soviet Yerevan

He studied violin and piano as a child and sang in the boys' choir of the Yerevan opera house. While still at school he wrote "Where Were You, God?" and first performed it in 1965 [1].

In 1967 he started a band with Levon Melikian and Gregory Nalbandian at the architecture department. They blended Armenian spiritual music with the rock of the time, and Communist Party officials, who accused Meschian of anti-Soviet propaganda, mocked them as the "Newly Ordained Apostles." The band kept the name [1]. In the early 1970s he wrote what his biography calls the first Armenian rock opera, The Insane Asylum, and the Apostles played in Gyumri, Moscow, Yerevan and Tallinn, always in Armenian [1].

The requiem and the move to America

In 1973 he sang for a short time in the choir of Holy Etchmiadzin, and met Catholicos Vazgen I, who asked him to write a requiem for the martyrs of the Genocide. He performed it there in 1975; Melodiya would not release it [1].

In 1989 he moved with his family to Boston, finally recorded his songs properly, and formed Apostles 90. He returned to Armenia in 2005 [1].

His albums

Dates are as his Wikipedia biography lists them [1]. These are the songs of his played most on Armenly, by Spotify plays as recorded in the catalog.

  • Catharsis (1991)
  • The Monologue of an Insane Violinist (1992)
  • Wander (1995), with songs from the Requiem
  • Communion (1996), which he calls the peak of his musical career
  • Live at Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall (2005)
  • Arthur Meschian Live 2006 (2006)

The architect

He worked on Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan in the 1970s. From 2007 he was chief architect of the new building of the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, the Matenadaran, finished in 2011, and in 2015 he completed the Komitas Museum in Yerevan [1].

Questions people ask

Who started Armenian rock?

Arthur Meschian is known as one of its founders. His band, the Apostles, formed in Yerevan in the late 1960s and sang in Armenian.

What is Arthur Meschian's most famous song?

"Where Were You, God?" He wrote it as a schoolboy and first sang it in 1965.

Did Arthur Meschian design the Matenadaran?

He was chief architect of its new building, built from 2007 to 2011. He also designed the Komitas Museum in Yerevan.

How do you spell Arthur Meschian in Armenian and Russian?

Armenian: Արթուր Մեսչյան. Russian: Артур Месчян. You will also see Artur Meschyan.

Sources

Cite this page

The Armenly team, "Arthur Meschian and the Apostles: the birth of Armenian rock." Armenly, November 11, 2026. https://armenly.com/guides/arthur-meschian

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