Alemshah was born in Bardizag ( now , near İzmit , Turkey ) . He began schooling in his own hometown , but during the 1915 Ottoman atrocities his parents sent the young boy to Italy to continue his education in the Murat-Raphaelian Armenian School in Venice . In 1923 , when his teachers there became aware of his striking musical gifts , they registered him at the Milan Conservatory to study music
1915 Ottoman atrocities
Armenian Genocide
Kurken Alemshah