Demirjian to Conduct Mozart Opera
By Armenian Weekly Staff
January 22, 2010

On Sat., Jan. 30, the New England Concert Opera Players, under the
direction of Aram Demirjian, will perform a concert version of
Mozart’s masterpiece `The Marriage of Figaro.’ The performance will
begin at 7:30 p.m. at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel, on 735
Commonwealth Ave. in Boston. Admission is $5 at the door, with
students admitted at no charge.

The opera will feature among the most talented young singers and
instrumentalists in the Greater Boston area, including current and
former students from Boston University’s Opera Institute, New England
Conservatory, and Harvard University, as well as other local
professional and student musicians. Leading roles include Sonja
Tengblad (soprano) as Susanna, Kara Harris (mezzo-soprano) as Countess
Rosina Almaviva, Joshua Taylor (baritone) as Count Almaviva, and
Graham Wright (bass) as Figaro. The production, abridged for concert
purposes, will include original narration by Harvard graduate in
English and music, Catherine Powell.

Aram Demirjian is currently pursuing his master’s degree in orchestral
conducting with Hugh Wolff at the New England Conservatory. Prior to
his graduate studies, Demirjian attended Harvard University where he
served for two years as music director of the Harvard Bach Society
Orchestra. He was one of only two students with such a distinction in
the history of the prestigious orchestra. He has also studied at the
Pierre Monteux School for Conductors, and this upcoming summer, he
will attend the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, studying
under David Zimman. Demirjian was selected last year to conduct
internationally famed cellist YoYo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Last
summer, he assumed the role of musical director of the Long Island
Youth Symphony Orchestra and toured with them on the eastern coast of
the U.S. and Canada, in Eastern Europe and Iceland.