WORLD-FAMOUS PAINTER TO JOIN URI ENSEMBLE IN COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
US Fed News
February 24, 2015 Tuesday 8:42 AM EST
KINGSTON, R.I., Feb. 24 — The University of Rhode Island issued the
following news release:
Painting is usually a solitary craft, pursued in a quiet studio or
loft. World-famous artist Kevork Mourad paints in a public setting –
and to music.
Mourad will bring his unique style to the University of Rhode Island
March 1 during a concert to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide.
The Syrian-raised artist will paint to music performed by URI’s
Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Armenian Folk Chamber Ensemble. The
concert, conducted by Gene Pollart, will start at 3 p.m. in the Fine
Arts Center.
“Kevork is a world-class artist and the opportunity to see him perform
at URI is unprecedented,” says Theodore Mook, publicity coordinator
and a cello teacher in the music department. “Also, we’re honoring
a terrible historical event that gets overlooked.”
Raised in Syria and of Armenian origin, Mourad, who lives and works
in New York, is known for spontaneously painting to music on a public
stage. His paintings are also exhibited in galleries and museums
throughout the world.
He is a teaching artist with cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road project
and has performed at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Brooklyn
Museum of Art, the Chelsea Museum of Art, Le Festival du Monde Arabe
in Montreal, the Stillwater Festival, the Nara Museum in Japan, the
Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central
Park’s Summerstage with the Silk Road Ensemble and Bobby McFerrin.
Mourad will paint during the entire concert at URI, and his work
will be projected on a screen while he paints. His paintings will be
displayed later in the Fine Arts Gallery.
The first half of the concert will feature the Armenian chamber
ensemble, a seven-member New England group that performs traditional
Armenian songs.
In the second half, the URI ensemble will perform the world premiere
of “Wind Chimes for 1915,” composed by Kenneth Kalajian, of East
Greenwich, whose son, Charles, is a graduate student in conducting
at URI. (Charles, as well as Kenneth’s other son, John, will perform
with the Armenian ensemble, as will Kenneth.)
“It’s an honor to have the Symphonic Wind Ensemble perform the world
premiere of my piece,” says the elder Kalajian. “Just as the wind
is eternal, it gently breaks the darkness of the past and forever
propels the memory of our ancestors.”
The wind ensemble will also perform Frenergy by John Estacio, Amazing
Grace by Frank Ticheli, Armenian Dances by Alfred Reed and Puszta by
Jan Van der Roost.
Pauline Getzoyan, of Lincoln, and Kenneth’s wife, Esther, approached
the music department about having a concert to commemorate the
genocide. Pauline and Esther are teaching an honor’s seminar at URI
about Armenian history.
Between 1915 and 1918, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman authorities in what is now eastern Turkey. Many Armenian
men were arrested and killed, and women and children perished during
forced marches to the Syrian desert.
The massacre was carried out during and after World War I amid fears
that Christian Armenians in the Muslim Ottoman Empire were a threat
to the state for allegedly siding with the Russians, at war with
the Turks.