Chamber Music Society Of Lincoln Center to Present COMPOSERS IN FOCUS: Mary Kouyoumdjian

On Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 6:30pm, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will present Composers In Focus, a digital event celebrating Armenian-American composer and documentarian Mary Kouyoumdjian. After a discussion with the composer, violinist Jesse Mills, cellist Mihai Marica, double bassist Brendan Kane, clarinetist Todd Palmer, and trumpeter Gareth Flowers will perform Kouyoumdjian's 30-minute to open myself, to scream with visuals by artist Kevork Mourad. Composers In Focus gives audiences a rare opportunity to sit in on intimate conversations between composers and musicians who know each other's work, and in some cases have known each other and worked together for years.

to open myself, to scream (2017) is a portrait piece on Romani artist, writer, musician, and Holocaust survivor Ceija Stojka. Kouyoumdjian says, "What draws me to Stojka's work are her themes of longing for the past and coping with the aftermath of unimaginable trauma. As a granddaughter of Armenian genocide survivors, such themes felt familiar to me within my own culture and family history, and these are common themes in other cultures that have and are continuing to experience mass exterminations. I am a firm believer in the arts as a medium for change, and I hope to continue the conversation about how we empathize with those who experience the unimaginable, and how we can pull from the past to move forward."

Each movement is inspired by various paintings of Stojka's - from her paintings that celebrate her free and vibrant Romani life, to those that explore the horrific experiences she endured during the Holocaust. Composed for mixed ensemble and electronic track, the music often integrates elements of folk music within a contemporary musical language. The ensemble members play amplified with pre-recorded samples of themselves - performing in the present while engaging with the past. Inspired by Stojka's fond memories of her mother, who would calm her with her singing, a distant and intangible voice presents itself throughout the work. The music alternates between polarities of bliss and tragedy, in an effort to understand Stojka's unique perspective, and draws on imagery related to family, community, nature, the seasons, fear, nakedness, and shame. The piece and movements are titled after Stojka's own words.

Digital Event Details

Composers In Focus: Mary Kouyoumdjian
Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 6:30pm ET
Available on Demand Starting April 6, 2022
Link: www.chambermusicsociety.org/cms-front-row/online-events/online-events/composers-in-focus-mary-kouyoumdjian/
Tickets: Free, but RSVP required.

Program:
Kouyoumdjian - to open myself, to scream for clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, bass, audio playback, and film
i. I dream of living
ii. We were ashamed
iii. In the shadows of a smoking crematorium
iv. Auschwitz is only sleeping

Jesse Mills, violin
Mihai Marica, cello
Brendan Kane, double bass
Todd Palmer, clarinet
Gareth Flowers, trumpet
Kevork Mourad, visual artist

About Mary Kouyoumdjian

Mary Kouyoumdjian is a composer and documentarian with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first generation Armenian-American and having come from a family a??directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, she uses a sonic palette that draws on her heritage, interest in music as documentary, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new. A strong believer in freedom of speech and the arts as an amplifier of expression, her compositional work often integrates recorded testimonies with resilient individuals and field recordings of place to invite empathy by humanizing complex experiences around social and political conflict.

Kouyoumdjian has received commissions for such organizations as the New York Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Beth Morrison Projects/OPERA America, Alarm Will Sound, Bang on a Can, International Contemporary Ensemble, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the American Composers Forum, Roomful of Teeth, WQXR, REDSHIFT, Experiments in Opera, Helen Simoneau Danse, the Nouveau Classical Project, Music of Remembrance, Friction Quartet, Ensemble Oktoplus, and the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble among others. Her work has been performed internationally at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, the Barbican Centre, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Millennium Park, Benaroya Hall, Prototype Festival, the New York Philharmonic Biennial, Cabrillo Festival, Big Ears Festival, 21C Music Festival, and Cal Performances. Her residencies include those with EMPAC, Buffalo String Works, Alarm Will Sound/The Mizzou International Composers Festival, Roulette/The Jerome Foundation, Montalvo Arts Center, and Exploring the Metropolis. Her music has been described as "eloquently scripted" and "emotionally wracking" by The New York Times and as "politically fearless" and "the most harrowing moments on stage at any New York performance" by New York Music Daily. In her work as a composer, orchestrator, and music editor for film, she has collaborated on a diverse array of motion pictures including orchestrating on the soundtracks to The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus Features) and Demonic (Dimension Films).

Kouyoumdjian holds a D.M.A and M.A. in composition from Columbia University, where she studied primarily with Zosha Di Castri, Georg Friedrich Haas, Fred Lerdahl, and George Lewis; an M.A. in Scoring for Film & Multimedia from New York University; and a B.A. in Music Composition from the University of California, San Diego, where she studied with Chaya Czernowin, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Anthony Davis, Steven Schick, and Chinary Ung. Dedicated to new music advocacy, Kouyoumdjian is a Co-Founder of the annual new music conference i??New Music Gathering, served as the founding Executive Director of contemporary music ensemble Hoteli?? Elefant, and served as Co-Artistic Director of Alaska's new music festival Wild Shore New Music. As an avid educator, Kouyoumdjian is Assistant Professor of Composition at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and has taught at Columbia University, The New School, Brooklyn College's Feirstein School of Cinema, Mannes Prep, the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program. Kouyoumdjian is proud to be on the board of the American Composers Forum and is published by Schott's PSNY. Learn more at www.marykouyoumdjian.com.

Photo Credit: Desmond White