‘Hoy Lari’ Performs for Children, in Boston and Armenia

On May 18, “Hoy Lari” returned to the Boston area and rocked the house to 200 parents and children in Woburn, Mass. The event was to benefit the Armenia Children’s Milk Fund, which fills one specific, vital nutritional need—to provide baby formula to infants in Armenia who are orphaned or ill, or whose mothers are unable to breastfeed and whose families are unable to purchase formula.

Hoy Lari is the brainchild of Janet Yetenkian and Paola Kassabian, two cousins from Beirut living in Glendale, Calif. Combining American songs with the Armenian language, Hoy Lari has endeared itself to Armenian children throughout the diaspora. Children were up singing and dancing with the singers, and the parents shared the children’s enthusiasm as they, too, sang along.

At the end of the concert the children had their pictures with Yetenkian and Kassabian, who said they may have found future mini-Hoy Lari in the audience.