Art

Concert Commemorates 20th
Anniversary of Earthquake

By Anahit Tokaltyan
Special to the Mirror-Spectator

LEXINGTON, Mass. — On Sunday, December 7, the National Heritage Museum hosted an event, titled “Music For Life,” commemorating the 20th anniversary of the earthquake in Armenia.

The event was organized by the Amaras Art Alliance and had support from Cambridge Yerevan Sister City (CYSCA) and Project SAVE: Armenian Photograph Archives. The purpose of the evening was to honor the memory of those who had lost their lives in the earthquake in 1988. The event featured many talented artists and groups.

Master of Ceremonies Lousineh Ayanian started the evening with remarks about the earthquake as well as the artists.

Following Ayanian’s remarks there was a choir procession to remember those who perished.

Next, guest speaker Dr. Carolann S. Najarian took to the podium. The choir group, called Canta Mundi Choir, came down in two rows holding candles and did a wonderful presentation of the Soorp-Soorp, a powerful hymn in the Diving Liturgy of the Armenian Apostolic Church. After the group performed, Najarian gave an inspirational speech about how Armenians from the Greater Boston area had given so much aid to Armenia.

Najarian received her bachelor’s degree from the City University of New York. After her marriage, she moved to Massachusetts and attended and graduated from the Boston University School of Medicine. In addition to her medical practice, she has made numerous trips to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh to assess the need for medical aid in those areas. In the end, she was hopeful in her message and spoke of the extensive reconstruction of the area.

The evening was split into two parts, the first part had only performers playing music on their instrument and the second part had a singer and choir group. The first three performers are part of a group that supports young musicians; all three come from artistic families, two of which had their parents perform that evening as well. The performers by order were Christina Azarian, Haig Hovsepian and Christina Baboian. Azarian and Baboian attend Belmont High School and Hovsepian attends the Butler Elementary School in Belmont. Azarian played a piece by Komitas on the piano called Garouna; Hovsepian played Ororby Aram Khachaturian on the violin and Baboian also did a piece by Komitas called Goojn Araon the clarinet. Afterwards the three performed a trio of songs, March of Zietoun, a lullaby and Kochari.

Another highlight of the first part of the evening was by performer Junko Fujiwara Simons, who is a “creative musician,” improviser and chamber music performer. She played a powerful piece on the cello called In Memoriam by Aram Sarkissian. The last performer of the first part of the event was Levon Hovsepian.

Mikail Charlaflian, a resident of the Greater Boston area, said he had enjoyed the first part of the evening and said he felt “a lot of emotions and was reminded of a lot of real memories when listening to Dr. Najarian speak.” Charlaflian liked all the performers, but for different reasons. “I felt like the performance by the younger artist was different, because unlike many of us in the audience who actually had understood the severity of the earthquake, they don’t. However their performance this evening represents the new hope for the lives of the people in the region today.”

In the second part of the evening there were two more musical instrument performances but the focus was more on singing rather than instrumental. The first performer was John Baboian, who played two pieces called Anush Garoun and For David. The latter was named for a musician he had met while in Armenia. Afterwards, he and singer Nune Karapetian performed several songs by Komitas, including Ampel e Kamar-Kamar, Shakrh, Shookhkr, Kele Kele and Kakavik. The combination of piano and voice rendered the songs beautifully.

Next, Hovsepian, who played piano, and Armen Ghazarian, playing the violin, joined forces. There was one more musical instrument performance by pianist Karine Bagdasarian.

The evening ended with the Canta Mundi singing three songs representing three cultures. The first was a traditional Irish song; the second was Georgian and the last was an Armenian composition titled Azk Parabandsby Arno Babadjanian. The Canta Mundi Choir group was given a standing ovation for their wonderful performance of all three pieces. After they performed everyone who had performed that evening came on stage and the closing song was a song written by Charles Aznavour called For You, Armenia. Nune Karapetian lead the song and asked the audience to join them all in singing the song, which originally is sung in French, but they had translated it and it was sung in Armenian.

Audience member Isabella Sahagian commented, “It is important to be able to have a commemoration of the earthquake. All the performers this evening did a wonderful job and the event was organized well.”