Sahan Arzruni

NEW YORK, NEW YORK A musical event showcasing twelve promising young Armenian artists went up at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on December 1, 2012. It was the latest entry in an annual series of concerts presented by the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s New York Special Events Committee. The gifted young people presented on Saturday evening-all of whom are recipients of AGBU scholarships-included Tatevik Ayazyan, violinist; Armine Chamasyan, violinist; Anoush Simonian, violist; Vardan Gasparyan, cellist; Gurgen Simonyan, clarinetist; Tatevik Khoja-Eynatyan, marimba player; Garineh Avakian, vocalist; Tanya Gabrielian, pianist; Sofya Melikyan, pianist; Hayk Arsenyan, pianist and composer; Artur Akshelyan, composer; and Vahram Sargsyan, composer....

Joel Sachs, the indefatigable champion of contemporary music, presented a concert on November 9, 2012, at New York’s Lincoln Center showcasing Music of Latin America. The performance was part of Carnegie Hall’s Voices from Latin America festival and featured the New Juilliard Ensemble. Sergio Kafejian, one of the six composers highlighted, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Armenian parents. His Sabre Paranambucae, composed in 2010 for chamber ensemble received its U....

Joel Sachs, the indefatigable champion of contemporary music, presented a concert on November 9, 2012, at New York’s Lincoln Center showcasing Music of Latin America. The performance was part of Carnegie Hall’s Voices from Latin America festival and featured the New Juilliard Ensemble. Sergio Kafejian, one of the six composers highlighted, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Armenian parents. His Sabre Paranambucae, composed in 2010 for chamber ensemble received its U....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK It was a thrilling evening. An overwhelming occasion. An otherworldly experience. It was a night at Le Poisson Rouge: the chic Manhattan cabaret which has become the de rigueur performance venue for artists of all stripes-classical, pop, or jazz. And on this particular night, Le Poisson Rouge belonged to Tigran, the Armenia-born jazz pianist. Lean, sinewy, and shy, Tigran started off the program quietly - introspectively-weaving the well-known Komitas tune “Kakavik” into his opening solo segment....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK For the second year in a row, a group of young Armenian musicians presented a joint concert at New York’s Weill Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. On Monday, (April 5, 2010) some twenty performers gathered on the stage of this prestigious venue to exhibit their considerable instrumental and vocal skills. Co-chaired by Svetlana Amirkhanian and Zarminé Boghosian, event participants were chosen through national auditions. The program, in addition to featuring soloists, included two choral groups - the Hamazkayin ‘Arekag’ Choir and the Holy Martyrs Armenian Day School Choir - that added interest and diversity to the program....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK A fascinating concert took place on Sunday at Le Poisson Rouge, the new fashionable music venue in New York’s West Village. The former Village Gate, now converted to a 200-seat space, has become an attractive spot for informal presentations. Venerable composer Tigran Mansurian is celebrating his 70th birthday, touring the East Coast of the United States with Trio Hayren. Fortunately for Mansurian, he has been discovered by the magnificent violist Kim Kashkashian, who is promoting Mansurian’s music through her significant connections....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Pianist Nareh Arghamanian presented a wonderfully convincing performance at the Frick Collection in New York City on Sunday, November 22, 2009. In her debut recital, the winner of the prestigious 2008 Montreal International Music Competition offered an emotionally energized, spiritually exhilarated and intellectually engagi program. Arghamanian performed four large-scale staples of the standard repertoire. The most impressive performance of the late-afternoon concert was arguably Liszt’s Ballade No....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Zankel Hall, the mid-size auditorium at New York’s Carnegie Hall complex, is ideally suited for classical chamber music concerts. On the evening of Saturday January 26, 2008, however, a different sort of group, the Shoghaken Ensemble from Armenia, was spotlighted; it featured eight musicians who played native instruments, sang and danced. It appears that Carnegie Hall Corporation has decided to regularly invite such ethnic groups to showcase their artistic ability in a house designed basically for “serious” music....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK A few weeks ago, on April 14, I was invited to listen to cellist Jian Wang perform Chinese composer Huang Roa’s concerto ‘People Mountain People Sea’ at New York’s Miller theatre. However, the real revelation for me was to hear – during the same concert, cleverly named ‘Pocket Concertos’ – Emma Tahmizian to premiere Sebastian Currier’s Piano Concerto. I knew about Emma, but had not heard her perform....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Eve Beglarian is one of the most extraordinary and strikingly unique musical voices in New York. Described by The New York Times as a ‘remarkable experimentalist,’ she composes in ways that defy verbal description or explication. The daughter of the late Grant Beglarian, a former Dean at the University of Southern California, Eve has recently become interested in her Armenian roots and began studying and composing music inspired by her heritage....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Composer Tigran Mansurian is anointed with the chrism of Armenian music. During the past two weeks, New York audiences had the opportunity to hear two local premieres by this distinguished composer: Con Anima for string sextet at Merkin Concert Hall on March 27, and Agnus Dei for clarinet, violin, cello and piano at Weill Auditorium at Carnegie Hall on April 6, 2007. Con Anima, composed for viola and string quintet and commissioned by the Concertante ensemble, is in the form of a modified concerto grosso....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Sofya Melikyan, a talented and skillful pianist, performed on Sunday, October 15, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. A native of Yerevan, Melikyan moved to Spain as a teenager, studying initially in Madrid and later in Paris. She is currently getting her Master’s Degree at the Manhattan School of Music, working with the veteran piano teacher Solomon Mikowsky. Her performance on Sunday was her official New York debut....

New York, New York During a single weekend in early August, two very young fellows won over New York music-lovers, while filling Armenian hearts with unbound pride. The pair, both born in Yerevan in 1985, were violinist Sergey Khachatryan, performing at Avery Fisher Hall, and composer Tigran Ayvazyan, who had a composition featured at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Friday, August 4 marked the New York debut of 21-year-old Sergey Khachatryan, who performed a staple of the violin repertoire, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra under the baton of Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä....

NEW YORK, NY The 4th annual “Lionel Galstaun Memorial Concert” took place in the sanctuary of the St. Gregory the Enlightener Armenian Church, Westchester, NY on Sunday afternoon, March 19. Pianist Natalia Kazaryan of Tiflis, Georgia; mezzo soprano Solange Merdinian and violinist Sami Merdinian, both from Argentina, were the featured artists. Mr. Merdinian opened the program with a dignified rendition of Tartini’s Violin Sonata, also known as “The Devil’s Trill” for the fiendishly tricky double-stop shakes in the last movement....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Eerie. Desolate. Haunting. Perturbing. Those are a few of the words that came to mind as I listened to Suren Zakarian’s “Island of Lamentation,” performed by the New Juilliard Ensemble under the baton of Joel Sachs at New York’s Lincoln Center on Saturday, September 24. As Dr. Sachs remarked after the concert, “You wouldn’t want to be in his mind as he was composing it.” One of Armenia’s “middle generation” composers, Suren Zakarian is a musician of considerable note in his native country....

NEW YORK, NY Moscow’s famed Bolshoi Ballet and Orchestra is touring the United States in July and August, appearing at the Met Opera during the first two-weeks of their engagement. Aram Khachaturian’s Spartacus is one of the four spectacles presented in New York City, to be followed by performances in Wolf Trap, VA and Orange County, CA. “Spartacus” remains one of Bolshoi’s popular favorites, both in Russia and abroad. Although during its 1975 tour, Bolshoi presented excerpts of the ballet at Lincoln Center; the present performance is the premiere of the entire score in New York....

NEW YORK On Sunday afternoon, March 28, 2004, the annual ‘Musical Armenia’ series presented two relative newcomers to an audience at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, in New York City. Pianist Karine Poghosyan was at her best playing Rachmaninoff’s Second Sonata, capturing the turbulent ebb and flow of the score with passion, technical mastery, and precise pedaling. Her piano sound was pleasant and rounded (aside from a few banged notes), and her emphasis on a recurring chromatic motif anchored the multi-sectioned composition, weaving it convincingly into a seamless fabric....

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Isabel Bayrakdarian, the Armenian Canadian soprano, projects a commanding presence on stage. In a rapidly growing career, she has become a sought after performer, appearing in many opera productions, concert engagements and recorded performances. Next season, she will make her Met debut in A View from the Bridge. On October 13, Sunday afternoon, Ms. Bayrakdarian offered a concert, ‘Light from the Cross,’ at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, presented by the Prelacy of the Armenian Church....