HASMIK HARUTYUNYAN PERFORMS IN SAN FRANCISCO CONCERTS, FESTIVAL EVENTS

Noyan Tapan
Dec 1, 2009

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. In autumn, 2009,
Hasmik Harutyunyan, leading member of Yerevan’s Shoghaken Folk
Ensemble, performed concerts of the music of Komitas, Ganachian,
Toumajan, Hayrik Mouradian, and Armenian lullabies with the Oakland,
California-based Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble. The concerts took
place in San Francisco, Oakland, and Fresno, California.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by Hasmik Harutyunyan, the recent
concerts, titled "Armenian Lullabies and Songs of Longing", consisted
of several medleys of Armenian folk music, including songs collected,
arranged, and written by Komitas, lullabies from different regions of
Historic Armenia, songs of longing (Gorani, Kele Lao, Imal Enim Lao),
work songs, and segments from a traditional Armenian wedding. At
each concert, the person playing the groom was chosen from amongst
the audience.

Following the concerts, Hasmik and Kitka participated in the San
Francisco World Music Festival, conducting an assembly for the children
of the Alice Fong Yu Alternative School and a special presentation
at the Krouzian Zekarian Vasbouragan School of San Francisco. At the
Armenian school, children were taught and then performed several songs
and dances, the youngest in the school singing lullabies, while the
older children performed several folk dances and sang "Ayb, ben, gim",
a song that teaches children the Armenian alphabet, and "Hayr Mer"
the latter written in 1915 by Komitas.

In Yerevan, Harutyunyan continues her work with the Shoghaken Ensemble,
with concerts in 2010 planned in Slovenia, Belgium, and Holland.