2011 ARMENIAN NIGHT AT THE POPS FEATURES SOPRANO HASMIK PAPIAN, WORLD PREMIER BY JOHN SARKISSIAN
Hasmik Papian

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Editor

BOSTON – The Friends of Armenian Culture Society (FACS) will present
the 60th annual Armenian Night at the Pops on Saturday, June 25 at
8 p.m. at Symphony Hall. The evening will feature renowned soprano
Hasmik Papian. Music director Keith Lockhart will lead the Boston
Pops orchestra in this gala celebration concert.

The program will feature a selection of operatic arias by Puccini,
Catalani and Johann Strauss. In addition to the traditional Lord’s
Prayer (Hayr Mer), a group of Armenian songs will also be performed,
including Arno Babadjanian’s Aria-Vocalise for soprano and orchestra
to mark the 90th anniversary of the composer’s birth, and the world
premiere of a new song, Drinking Song, by composer John Sarkissian.

Favorite arias will include O mio babbino caro from Puccini’s “Gianni
Schicchi;” Ebben, ne andro lontana from “La Wally” by Catalaini
andMeine lippen sie kuessen so heiss from Franz Lehar’s Operetta
“Giuditta.” The concert will also feature works by Suppe, Sousa, E.
Bernstein and Newman.

Grammy Award-winner Ricky Skaggs and his Kentucky Thunder band will
also perform.

Papian graduated from the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan first
as a violinist, then as a singer. After her debut at the Armenian
National Opera as Rosina in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” and as Mimì
in Puccini’s “La Bohème,” Papian started an international career,
which has since taken her to the most prestigious operatic stages
in the world: The Vienna State Opera, La Scala of Milan, Bastille
Opera in Paris and the Metropolitan Opera of New York, to name a
few. She has sung with such notable conductors as Riccardo Muti,
Placido Domingo, Valery Gergiev and James Levine.

John Sarkissian Sarkissian was born in Iran into a family of
Armenian emigrants from Russia. He studied composition and piano
at Conservatorio Giuseppe Nicolini in Piacenza, Italy, and later at
UCLA and the New England Conservatory of Boston, where he received
his undergraduate and graduate degrees, respectively. Among his
composition teachers have been Shaheen Farhat, Paul Reale, Ian Krouse,
Russell Steinberg, John Heiss and John Corigliano. Sarkissian is the
recipient of first prize at the 2010-11 International Garden Music
Competition in Poland for his piece for soprano and chamber orchestra.

For more information, contact Friends of Armenian Culture Society,
Inc., P.O. Box 87, Belmont, MA 02478-0002 or

Donations to FACS are tax deductible.