This performance, prepared to a script (in Turkish) by Ahmet Sami Özbudak, is a celebration of the work of the Armenian composer, choirmaster and musicologist Gomidas Vartabed (real name Sogomon Sogomonyan, 1869-1935), sometimes known in English as ‘Komitas’. After receiving training as a priest in Etchmiadzin (the main Armenian religious centre), he studied music at the Berlin Humboldt University, and thereafter used this training to found an Armenian national school of western-style music.
The musical director and choirmaster for this performance, in which some of Vartabed’s remarkably technically advanced and tasteful music will be sung by the Lusavoriç Choir, will be Hagop Mamigonyan. (An aside: in his youth, Dacat Derderyan, father of the famous Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Güler, sang in Vartabed’s choir in Istanbul’s Ortaköy district.)
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
