IN CONCERT: 2010 ARMENIAN YOUTH TALENT

In Concert: 2010 Armenian Youth Talent

Armenian News Network / Groong
April 8, 2010
Entertainment Wire

by Sahan Arzruni

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. Among the young performers, many showed real talent:
violinist Ani Helen Sinanyan, and pianist Arianna Mesrobian were
particularly noteworthy. The program also included a number of
novelties: a performance on the viola da gamba -- a bowed, fretted,
stringed instrument held between the knees - executed deftly by Lucine
Musaelian and a work by the Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual
teacher George Gurdjieff, whose `Armenian Song' was sensitively played
by pianist David Antabian.

The rest of the accomplished performers included Lilit and Mariam
Vahradyan (violin duet), Shant Arzoumanian (piano), Nicole Nudelman
(vocals), Arthur Mouradian (violin), Nareg Balian (piano), Tsovinar
Agavian (vocals), Serena Tchorbajian (vocals), Ani Djirdjirian
(vocals), Katherine and Nicole Sadaniantz (piano duet), Elen Ohanyan
(vocals), Lucy Hovanisyan (piano), Arturo Atoyan (vocals), Steven
Kakosyan (piano) and Eugenia Sarian (vocals). Almost all of them
presented works by Armenian composers, which in itself was decidedly
significant.

Dr. Svetlana Amirkhanian, a neurologist, founded the `Armenian Youth
Talent' a few years ago in the Diocesan mission parish of Brooklyn,
NY, home to a sizable community of emigrants from Azerbaijan and
Russia. The parish's Sunday school activities involve, in addition to
religious education, introducing young and old to various aspects of
Armenian culture. Dr. Amirkhanyan came up with the inspired idea of
organizing the school's young Armenian talents and showcasing them to
a wider audience. In an audacious leap of faith, she chose Carnegie
Hall as the venue, `because the place has a magical name in the music
world.' The two-year old project, underwritten by many friends and
supporters of the endeavor, presents a number of gifted Armenians on a
stage that is shared by many established artists.

Quite an auspicious beginning, for sure!


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Master pianist Sahan Arzruni enjoys an international career, and is
also known as a composer, ethnomusicologist, producer, teacher,
lecturer, writer, recording artist and broadcasting personality.