Armenian composer Soghomon Soghomonian (1869-1935) took the pseudonym Komitas (or Gomidas), the name of a 7th century Armenian hymn writer. Not only a composer, Komitas was also a monk, an ethnomusicologist, and a champion of the Armenian people during the Turkish genocide that began in 1915. The horrors he saw damaged his spirit and he spent the last twenty years of his life in mental hospitals.
More information