paul chaderjian

Evening marks the release of 31-song Sayat Nova set and children’s DVD  By Paul Chaderjian   GLENDALE, Calif. – In front of the black backdrop of the stage, a spotlight from above illuminates the pianist and the piano. The beige and-brown grand piano is a Petrof; the suit-clad pianist is none other than one of the culture’s shining stars: Armen Babakhanian.  This performance, this evening – celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Hamazkayin Music Committee – has the audience of nearly 300 mesmerized. “Excellent, excellent, excellent,” says Rita Demirjian, a supporter of the arts and a community activist. “I always have high expectations from the Hamazkayin, but tonight’s program went beyond my expectations.”  This story begins two decades ago when the Western United States Executive Board of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society created its music committee. The goal was to document and promote Armenian music by publishing and recording mus...

review by Paul Chaderjian The Bullet Collection by Patricia Sarrafian Ward Graywolf Press If depression is imprisoned and unexpressed rage, the trauma, rage and scars of the Lebanese Civil War is finally being addressed through the new literary voice of a generation of survivors like novelist Patricia Sarrafian Ward. In her debut novel, "The Bullet Collection," those who witnessed the annihilation of the Paris of the Middle East come to life to address the psychological effects of bombs, sniper fire, shelling, air raids and violent bloodshed. Sarrafian Ward, a Lebanese native who moved to the US in 1987, effortlessly captures the history and images of a catastrophe through the minds and hearts of one Lebanese family, whose typical and atypical idiosyncrasies are a true reflection to thousands who witnessed, escaped or simply ignored the reality of a violent and heartless war. While some lost their homes and wealth, others lost their loved ...

--> Review by Paul Chaderjian The Daydreaming Boy By Micheline Aharonian Marcom Riverhead Books, Penguin Group Literature crosses into uncharted boundaries with Micheline Aharonian Marcom's genius introspection of the psychology of an Armenian Genocide survivor five decades after the great catastrophe. More than a just another book, more than just another survivor story, more than scenes and dialogue, "The Daydreaming Boy" is a like prayer, an homage, a poetic mantra of images, thoughts, sounds and feelings. It's a hymn that flows like music, like a waterfall or like a desperate jump into an uncharted ocean of emotions. "The Daydreaming Boy" sways and lullabies, informs and challenges, races into the past and to the future. It invites the reader into a dream state, where capturing a reader's attention is no longer the object and empathy is not just a longing but a reality. This literary daydream is a collective trance state ...

review by Paul Chaderjian The Bullet Collection by Patricia Sarrafian Ward Graywolf Press If depression is imprisoned and unexpressed rage, the trauma, rage and scars of the Lebanese Civil War is finally being addressed through the new literary voice of a generation of survivors like novelist Patricia Sarrafian Ward. In her debut novel, "The Bullet Collection," those who witnessed the annihilation of the Paris of the Middle East come to life to address the psychological effects of bombs, sniper fire, shelling, air raids and violent bloodshed. Sarrafian Ward, a Lebanese native who moved to the US in 1987, effortlessly captures the history and images of a catastrophe through the minds and hearts of one Lebanese family, whose typical and atypical idiosyncrasies are a true reflection to thousands who witnessed, escaped or simply ignored the reality of a violent and heartless war. While some lost their homes and wealth, others lost their loved ones or their...

Nune Yesayan’s music featured on “The Shield”   by Paul Chaderjian May 19, 2007 On Tuesday, May 22, an estimated audience of at least three million Americans and an unknown number of viewers worldwide will hear Sayat Nova’s “Patkert Tamamov Kashats” on the FX channel’s hit police drama series “The Shield” starring Michael Chiklis. Bringing Sayat Nova alive for 21st-century audiences is Armenia’s modern-day minstrel, Nune Yesayan.   “This is the second time ‘The Shield’ uses Nune’s music,” says executive producer of Prime Entertainment Garbis Titizian. “‘Tamam Ashkhar,’ also from Sayat Nova, was used on June 8, 2004. That was episode 314 on season three, and this week’s show is number 517 in season six.”   The music-placement agency pitching Nune’s music to Hollywood is called NOMA Music. NOMA executive and former recording-industry insider Michael Wyner says Nune was referred to him when producers of “The Shield” were looking for Armenian music three years ago. When the p...

* A profile of the reporter, wordsmith and historian By Paul Chaderjian History, great characters, human drama are all elements that flow out of the pen of Mark Arax, who has been telling some of the most interesting and untold stories while working as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times for more than two decades. Mark Arax, considered one of the top journalists at the Times, is also a literary figure in his own right - a modern-day scribe, who was born into the most sensational Armenian stories of the 20th century. He could not help but investigate the story of his family, his people, his native California and turn them into literature, through a unique voice, a narrative voice that is Saroyanesque in spirit, Steinbeckian in scope and as epic as any modern scribe can be. After working in the LA Times offices in Southern California as a reporter from 1984-1990, what made Mark an overnight literary celebrity in his hometown of Fresno was a book he wrote about the murder of h...

- 11 Degrees of Love with zero degrees of separation by Paul Chaderjian A few years before the start of the devastating Civil War in Lebanon - when the Paris of Middle East, the jewel of a city, Beirut, was the capital of the Armenian Diaspora - two young college students named Seta Harboyan and Hratch Simonian, barely 20, began a legacy – perhaps unknowingly. Their legacy will be celebrated this weekend, once again, with the release of their daughter's debut record album, 11 Degrees of Love. > Back story From 1972 to 1976, Seta and Hratch hosted and produced the daily Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society radio program called "Haygagan Radiojam." With the then-modern and now-ancient reel-to-reel recorders, the couple - not yet a couple then - would wheel their dinosaur recording machine to Armenian elementary schools, record choirs, conduct interviews and rebroadcast them on Lebanese national radio. One afternoon, I stared at these celebrities with...