HISTORY, MEMORY, VOICE, SONG
By Mariam Matossian

World Pulse
0801/feature2.html
Jan 22 2008
OR

I want to inspire people with my music, my storytelling. I love
sharing my family’s story and the history of my culture. I love to
communicate that idea of hope. Both my grandmother and my grandfather
survived the Armenian genocide, and somehow she still sang… I want
to share that with as many people as possible.

I was brought up in a household filled with music. The seeds were
planted at a very young age, but music didn’t become a part of my
professional life until I visited Armenia for the second time. I had
previously been there in 1998-the first in my family to step foot in
the homeland since my grandparents were forcibly deported in 1915. In
2002 I returned to Yerevan to spend three months working with very
poor and orphaned children. When I returned from that second trip,
I was overwhelmed with a need to raise awareness of the beauty of
the Armenian culture and the pain that exists there.

I distinctly remember when I realized the impact music can have on
the world. I was working at a center for at-risk youth in Armenia,
and we were having a party with the children. I took my demo CD of
old Armenian folk songs with me and we were all dancing and singing.

The children had these beautiful, innocent, spontaneous reactions to
the music. That moment was so beautiful. I remember thinking, "Lord,
I need to do something more with this." After I returned to Vancouver,
I found a producer and began to seriously pursue my music.

These children taught me some of the songs on my first album, Far
>From Home. It was such a fantastic experience. Face to face with
these beautiful, innocent children who have nothing but are filled
with joy, I was struck with how much we take for granted. I wanted
to tell their stories but I also wanted to somehow link it to my own
family, to my grandmother’s story.

It came full circle for me. I knew I could use my music to share
my grandmother’s story and link it to these children’s stories. My
grandmother, also named Mariam, passed away long before I was born.

Still, she has been a huge influence on my life and my music. She
was among the many who were deported during the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

After my great-grandfather died in the death march, my
great-grandmother made the painstaking decision to place her two
youngest children, my grandmother among them, in an orphanage to be
educated while she worked. In Armenia, spending time with children
who had been surrendered by their parents in much the same way,
it came full circle for me. I knew I could use my music to share my
grandmother’s story and link it to these children’s stories.

"Narineh": Tradition Meets Action It is important to me to connect my
music to my history-many of the songs I sing are those my grandmother
taught to my mother, who then taught them to me. Now my mother and I
have a partnership when it comes to choosing which songs to include
on the albums.

Much of Armenian folk music celebrates the beauty of the
country. Far >>From Home is about missing the homeland-about our
personal definitions of home. But for In the Light, I chose some of
the Armenian love songs my grandmother sang. I recorded that album
in the months leading up to my wedding, and I just loved the special
connection I felt with my grandmother when I sang the songs that she
sang, the songs I know she loved.

"The children who inspired me, who taught me so much…"Now, as I am
getting ready to be a mother, I find that expecting my first child
has added so much to my music, to the words I’m singing. There’s
this new dimension, a new generation: my grandmother, my mother, me,
and now, this new little baby. It’s been so exciting and emotional;
it definitely heightens in me the desire to spread awareness of our
cultural history.

There’s this new dimension, a new generation: my grandmother, my
mother, me, and now, this new little baby. I want to preserve the
folk songs, to reintroduce this beautiful, traditional music to the
world. But I also know that music is more than tradition. It is also
a vehicle that I can use to raise awareness about violence happening
all over the world.

I wrote the song called "Narineh" about a young Armenian girl who went
missing in Iraq-the niece of a dear family friend. I want people to
know Narineh’s story-I don’t want her to be forgotten. In the song,
a mother calls out to her daughter, longing for her to be found. I
repeat Narineh’s name as a way to remember her. I want audience
members to know that children are still being victimized today. I
want everyone to know in hopes that even one person listening will
be compelled to act in some way.

Visit Mission Armenia to learn how you can help women and children
in Mariam’s homeland.

In the Light is available in Canadian stores now. You may also
purchase it online at CDBaby.com. You’ll find Mariam’s first album,
Far From Home, available there too.