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.
On March 29, at Weill Recital Hall at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Beglarian’s ‘I Will Not Be Sad in This World’ was featured as part of a recital entitled ‘The Flute Book for the Twenty-First Century.’ Composed for alto flute and pre-recorded tape, it was premiered by New Zealander Marya Martin.
Beglarian’s work, based on the eighteenth century ashugh Sayat Nova’s ‘Ashkharums akh chim kashi’ (simply identified as ’traditional Armenian song’ in the program notes), was intoned on a dimmed stage. The hushed tones of the alto flute were cast against the multilayered audio construction, chanted by Ms. Beglarian herself.
Here is a run-down of words that came to mind as I was listening to ‘I Will Not Be Sad in This World’: otherworldly, evocative, eerie, sublime, quiescent, pearly, haunting, aquatic, unfettered, celestial, secluded, revelatory, ecru, ripe persimmons….
It seemed like too short a composition.