AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Website: www.agbu.org
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday,
THE AGBU PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT INTRODUCES ARMENIAN MUSIC TO NEW YORK CITY
STUDENTS THROUGH CARNEGIE HALL’S MUSICAL EXPLORERS PROGRAM
This spring, the AGBU Performing Arts Department collaborated with Carnegie
Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI) to have Armenia represented for the first
time as part of WMI’s Musical Explorers program. The program is designed to
connect students in grades K-2 to New York City’s rich and diverse musical
community as they build fundamental music skills through listening, singing and
moving to songs from all over the world. For four days, hundreds of New York
City students and teachers sang traditional Armenian songs together with the
acapella folk trio Zulal, the oud player Ara Dinkjian, and the clarinetist
Martin Haroutunian, who showed the students several traditional Armenian
instruments.
Zulal takes Armenia’s village folk melodies and weaves intricate arrangements
that pay tribute to the rural roots of the music, while introducing a
sophisticated lyricism and energy. The trio’s singers—Teni Apelian, Yeraz
Markarian, and Anaïs Tekerian—have been singing together since 2002 and have
performed at the Getty Museum, Berklee College of Music, Carnegie Hall, The
Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and New York’s Symphony Space, along with
performances for Cirque du Soleil and the Silk Road Project. Ara Dinkjian is an
Armenian American oud player who has appeared in 22 countries and continues to
compose, perform, record and teach. Martin Haroutunian, an accomplished
clarinetist, is the director of the Arev Ensemble in Boston, which uses folk
and modern instruments to recreate Armenian music.
The Musical Explorers program introduces New York City students and teachers to
songs and dances from around the world, which they eventually perform along
with the artists during the interactive concerts. As part of the program, Zulal
led workshops with New York City public school K-2 teachers and advised on the
creation of a full curriculum, including an accompanying CD, featuring lessons
and creative extensions for semester-long coursework. In the 2016-17 season,
along with Armenian folk music, students also learned about bluegrass, Chinese
traditional music, Sudanese celebration songs, calypso, and hip-hop, exploring
a diverse range of musical genres found in their New York City neighborhoods.
“At one moment during the concert, the host asked Ara Dinkjian to play his oud
together with the steel pan of the calypso musician and the beats of the
hip-hop DJ, displaying how diversity can be unified in one piece of music. This
concept aligns perfectly with the mission of AGBU PAD: to present our unique
culture to the diverse audiences of New York. Hearing hundreds of children from
the five boroughs of New York sing Armenian folk songs is the most touching
symbol of unity in this immensely multicultural city,” said Hayk Arsenyan, the
director of the AGBU Performing Arts Department.
For more information about AGBU PAD, please visit
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.agbuperformingarts.org_&d=DwIF-g&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=3oLTFdM56cJV9TJs5OKNwWc42zUFtW-3eYG5kY0zH0M&s=YHpiHjdQgAsr2d4IP-yC4T0xTURU0GYPaicz9anH_TY&e=
.
For more information about the Weill Music Institute’s Musical Explorers:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.carnegiehall.org_Education_Musical-2DExplorers_&d=DwIF-g&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=3oLTFdM56cJV9TJs5OKNwWc42zUFtW-3eYG5kY0zH0M&s=mzEv66PolCMUBP25Vusse_js3bzmptsBDZdCAQVtQjo&e=
.
Established in 1906, AGBU (www.agbu.org) is the world's largest non-profit
Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU preserves and
promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and
humanitarian programs, annually touching the lives of some 500,000 Armenians
around the world.
For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, please visit
www.agbu.org.
