Richard Yardumian

Yardumian died of complications following a heart attack at home in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania on August 15, 1985. He was the father of thirteen children, including pianist Vera Yardumian, painter Nishan Yardumian and teacher Esther Yardumian.

In 1967, Fordham University, in celebration of its 125th anniversary, commissioned Yardumian to write his mass, Come Creator Spirit, which was premiered at Lincoln Center that year with mezzo-soprano Lili Chookasian. This musically complex piece is now rarely if ever performed, yet it stands as an interesting contribution to the Catholic musical canon, if for no other reason than for its having been penned by a Protestant.

In the 1950s, Yardumian began writing hymns for The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma, a Swedenborgian congregation, in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, a church he later joined and for which he became musical director.

The Great Depression of the 1930s precluded advanced formal music training for Yardumian, but he continued to progress on his own time. He was a private in the army during World War II when, in 1945, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered Desolate City, which marked Yardumian's debut as a composer. This was also the beginning of his long association with Ormandy, which led to several recordings on the Columbia label.

Richard Yardumian (Armenian: Ռիչարդ Յարդումյան, April 5, 1917 – August 15, 1985) was an Armenian-American classical music composer.