COMPOSER'S MELODIES TUG AT HEARTSTRINGS.

Byline: VICTORIA GIRAUD

Armenian-born composer Ara Sevanian hasn't let American indifference to classical music or the challenges of making a living from composing stop him during his 48 years in the United States.

``In classical music you don't make money,'' Sevanian said, philosophically. Accordingly, when he first settled in the San Fernando Valley some years ago, he opened a coffee shop, Ara's Burgers, and kept it running for 25 years while he and his wife raised a son and a daughter.

His friend, Soviet composer and fellow Armenian Aram Khachaturian was ``very angry at me doing a coffee shop,'' Sevanian remembered as he told his friend that the U.S. government does not support its artists. ``You have to make a living. You have to help yourself.''

The 80-year-old profile composer has managed to write over 200 works so far, which have included string quartets, suites, variations, songs and full-length symphonies. Sevanian's music has been recorded on 16 cassettes and two albums, and until last year he performed in concert on his favorite instrument, an Egyptian harp, a 72-string instrument known as a kanoon.

The world premiere of one of Sevanian's latest works, ``Symphony No. 8 in A Major,'' will be performed at College of the Canyons in Valencia on Saturday.

Although Sevanian says his main influences in composition are the melodies of Armenia, he admits that ``Symphony No. 8'' was influenced by Beethoven, a favorite of his. ``I try to keep my independence, I try to keep my national character. I wear Beethoven's mask, but I am singing my song.''

A widower, Sevanian lives in Newhall now and devotes his life to his music. Inspiration comes anytime, but usually he is at work in the morning, ``when the brain is fresh. I try to create good melodies to touch people's hearts.'' At the end of the day he'll relax for a bit and watch his favorite TV shows - ``Jeopardy'' and ``Wheel of Fortune.''

Sevanian's ideas for melodies have sometimes been inspired by things that happened to him when he was a small child. He remembered a specific incident when he was awakened by a singer at midnight.

``I remember the moonlight. A drunk man was singing such a beautiful melody. Later the melody came back to me.'' A few years ago he remembered the music and wrote a piece called ``Love Song'' for piano and kanoon, and dedicated it to his second wife.

Musical inspiration came early for Sevanian. When he was about 4 his father, who was a fine tailor, bought a kanoon to play himself and locked the instrument in the bedroom for safekeeping.

``I found where my mother kept the key, and for more than a month I practiced,'' Sevanian recalled.

His chance to play came at a party his parents held. His father played the kanoon for a while for his guests and soon found his son sitting beside him demanding to be heard. ``I play now. I insist. I want to play,'' Sevanian remembered saying. When he played the guests were amazed, and it wasn't long before Sevanian was enrolled in a music conservatory.

In 1939, as the winner of an Armenian musical competition, he went on to compete at a Soviet musical competition in Moscow, playing his own composition, ``Hejaz,'' and was named a Laureate of the USSR. Josef Stalin and the Politburo were in attendance, and Stalin was moved enough by the performance that he invited Sevanian to play at a private Kremlin recital.

Sevanian remembers Stalin as ``a short man with a pimply face. When he smiled his mustache went up. Stalin's approval led to his awarding Sevanian a Red Flag medal, one of the Soviet Union's highest honors that enabled him to travel all over the USSR free of charge.

World War II broke out while Sevanian was living in Germany, and he was sent to a concentration camp for two years. This horrendous experience ended when the German government discovered Sevanian's talent. Remarking that German generals really liked classical music, Sevanian found himself supported with a salary and a free Berlin apartment, and giving concerts all over Germany. When an American bomb destroyed the apartment house, he soon had another.

In 1948 Sevanian settled in San Francisco with the help of California Secretary of State Lee Chamberlain, who Sevanian says acted like a father toward him and helped him with expenses. Unable to speak English then, Sevanian said, he gradually learned while taking jobs as a dishwasher at the Officers Club at the Presidio and later as a worker in a grocery store. The Armenians in San Francisco knew all about him and had him playing his kanoon at all sorts of functions. ``I played for nothing,'' he remembered.

One of the many highlights of his career was the performance of his ``Symphonic Sketches'' in 1972 at the Los Angeles Music Center. What makes this a sweeter memory is that the orchestra had also selected his friend Khachaturian's piano concerto.

Sevanian has found a very special place to preserve his body of work: a 300-year-old intellectual center for Armenians on a small island, Sant Lazzar, near Venice, Italy.

Just recently he and his son took over six bundles of original compositions, which will be preserved for posterity in the unique library.

Music is Sevanian's most important occupation now. ``I now write whatever God gives me to write. I have lots and lots of things in my head that I want to write.''

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Photo

Photo: (color) Ara Sevanian, who settled in Newhall after c oming to America 48 years ago, once performed for Josef Stalin.

Phil McCarten/Daily News