paul chaderjian

By Paul Chaderjian June 11, 2005 The woman who set the standard for introducing and reacquainting Diasporans and non-Armenians all over the world to Armenian songs and Armenian culture is returning to concert halls in the US and Canada with new songs, her biggest hits, dazzling costumes, and that recognizable voice which captures the drama, emotion and perseverance of the collective, enigmatic Armenian soul. She is known simply by her first name, Nune, and those who like her music all agree that they can't get enough. As a matter of fact, thousands congregate when she appears anywhere. Her summertime concert at the Cascade in Yerevan attracted fans from all corners of Armenia. A week before the Children's Day concert in Yerevan, Nune traveled to the remotest corners of Russia, where Armenians families have created small communities and financially support their cash-strapped extended families back home. Her Russian tour took her to the cities of Gorky, Perma, Samara, and Tumen....

By Paul Chaderjian June 11, 2005 The woman who set the standard for introducing and reacquainting Diasporans and non-Armenians all over the world to Armenian songs and Armenian culture is returning to concert halls in the US and Canada with new songs, her biggest hits, dazzling costumes, and that recognizable voice which captures the drama, emotion and perseverance of the collective, enigmatic Armenian soul. She is known simply by her first name, Nune, and those who like her music all agree that they can't get enough. As a matter of fact, thousands congregate when she appears anywhere. Her summertime concert at the Cascade in Yerevan attracted fans from all corners of Armenia. A week before the Children's Day concert in Yerevan, Nune traveled to the remotest corners of Russia, where Armenians families have created small communities and financially support their cash-strapped extended families back home. Her Russian tour took her to the cities of Gorky, Perma, Samara, and Tumen....

by Paul Chaderjian Sept 29, 2004 Nune Yesayan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, on August 5, 1969. Even before studying music in college, Yesayan made a name for herself at her high school for being a gifted vocalist and talented performer. She graduated from high school in 1986 and was accepted to the Polytechnic University of Yerevan to study engineering. During her first year in college, Yesayan excelled in her engineering studies and received high marks in both math and physics. She spent her time away from school performing Armenian folk music with an amateur band. The group, which included long-time friend and collaborator Arthur Hagopian, appeared at small venues and a few concerts. After successfully completing her first year of course work at the Polytechnic University in 1987, Yesayan decided to change her major and focus on her passion for music. She applied for admission and was accepted to the Jazz and Pop College of Yerevan, where she began her studies in the Fall of 1988. Ye...

Book Review by Paul Chaderjian My Brother's Road by Markar Melkonian with Seta Melkonian By any account, the enigmatic genius, scholar, political activist, soldier and freedom fighter Monte Melkonian led a short-lived but extraordinary life. In the newly published My Brother’s Road, Monte’s brother Markar, with the help of Monte’s widow Seta, chronicles one Californian’s journey from small town kid to legendary martyr. Monte’s modern-day epic begins in 1969, when the Melkonians visit their maternal grandmother’s ancestral village in Western Armenia, some 55 years after the Genocide. At the impressionable age of eleven, Monte sees his grandmother’s birthplace, watches the Turks who have taken up residence in the village, notices the Armenian Church has become a Turkish movie theatre and ponders about the outlines left when crosses were chiseled off doors. His people had disappeared from the village and the region, millions of Armenians had evaporated from th...

--> Book Review by Paul Chaderjian My Brother's Road by Markar Melkonian with Seta Melkonian By any account, the enigmatic genius, scholar, political activist, soldier and freedom fighter Monte Melkonian led a short-lived but extraordinary life. In the newly published My Brother’s Road, Monte’s brother Markar, with the help of Monte’s widow Seta, chronicles one Californian’s journey from small town kid to legendary martyr. Monte’s modern-day epic begins in 1969, when the Melkonians visit their maternal grandmother’s ancestral village in Western Armenia, some 55 years after the Genocide. At the impressionable age of eleven, Monte sees his grandmother’s birthplace, watches the Turks who have taken up residence in the village, notices the Armenian Church has become a Turkish movie theatre and ponders about the outlines left when crosses were chiseled off doors. His people had disappeared from the village and the region, millions of Armenians had evapora...

--> by Paul Chaderjian (New York City) – The January 6, 2004, broadcast of Public Radio International’s “the World” program dedicated its Global Hits segment to the Cascade Folk Trio. The broadcast marked another significant in-road for the seldom globally-acknowledged sounds of Armenian music and also a giant coup for Cascade Folk Trio -- an Armenian group enjoying mainstream media attention for its newly released, “Old Street.” “It’s full of new and old sounds,” reported PRI’s Marco Werner. “The pop and jazz rhythms of today are mixed with ancient instruments. There's the duduk, the Armenian oboe, which has been around for more than 2,000 years. And the zurna, a single reed instrument. But perhaps the oldest sound on this CD is the Armenian language itself, which is thought to go back 5,000 years.” “Oh, my God. I have to say we were very, very excited,” says Cascade Folk Trio vocalist Armen Papikyan . “It was a joy, true happiness. It’s an incredible ...

The bloodiest century in all of human history, a century that marked the near-annihilation of the Armenian people, witnessed two world wars, holocausts, ethnic cleansing campaigns and left millions of humans in inhumane conditions, displaced and traumatized for generations to come, is being allowed by the great thinkers of our time to reinvent itself into traditions that continue into the 21st century. No sooner than imperialism was thought to have retired into legendary tales in history books, globalization became the rallying cry for the post-industrial quest to fuel the new world economic order. In this new century when mankind is amassing more information and advancing knowledge and science that in any other period in the history of civilization, humans are left questioning and contemplating why their loved ones are being butchered, abducted, held captive and their human rights violated not just in Iraq and Guantanamo, but in Yerevan, the Sudan and in Europe and the United States...