BEREA, Ohio—Loris Ohannes Chobanian is professor emeritus and a composer-in-residence at Baldwin Wallace (BW) University, and his composition “Der Voghormia” (Lord Have Mercy) for chorus, piano, and timpani was premiered on March 22 by “BW Singers”—conducted by Maestro Marc Weagraff, with Debra Comodeca, piano, and Josh Ryan, timpani—at the BW Conservatory Gamble Auditorium. The capacity audience included a significant presence from Cleveland area Armenians and members of the Saint Gregory of Narek Armenian Church together with Pastor Father Hratch Sargsyan.
Prior to the premiere, Weagraff expressed his appreciation for Chobanian’s “Der Voghormia” and urged the public to read the program notes, which read: “The prayer Der Voghormia was composed for the Armenian Church in Baghdad. Today’s performance is the U.S. premiere. Historic Armenia is located in the Mount Ararat plateau. Tigranes the Great (140-55 B.C.) was emperor of Armenia under whom the country became the strongest state east of the Roman Republic. Christianity was introduced to Armenia by apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its official Religion in the year AD 301. The date April 24, 2015 is the centennial of April 24, 1915 in which the Ottoman Turkish Muslims unleashed their massacres of the Armenians in the Armenian Genocide, the first Genocide of the Twentieth Century. The composer’s mother and grandmother were victims of the Armenian Genocide. The prayer “Der Voghormia” also proclaims to implore peace to the world. The Timpani are placed at the balcony and respond to the prayer from above.”
The BW Singers’ pronunciation of the Armenian text was impressively authentic. The composer had met with the singers and dwelled on articulating the proper Armenian pronunciation. The singers seemed to love the composition. The response to the prayer from the powerful timpani made an unbelievable out of worldly impact. It was not clear where the sound of the timpani was coming from. The music of “Der Voghormia” will be available to Armenian churches throughout the United States.
Loris Ohannes Chobanian was born to Armenian parents in Mosul, Iraq. He was introduced to serious music at an early age. His father Ohannes Chobanian, an oil engineer and an amateur musician, was a versatile performer on the piano, the flute, and the violin. His favorite composers were Mozart and Komitas. At the age of 5, he composed an operetta “O, Loris!” which he sang in the city of Kirkuk. The elder Chobanian conducted the orchestra; he often organized plays and concerts for the Armenian communities in Mosul and Kirkuk. As an engineer he was also instrumental in bringing electricity to the city of Mosul.
In the 1950’s, Loris Chobanian performed the classical guitar regularly on Baghdad Television. After 1960, he performed on TV in Louisiana and in Michigan. Chobanian was instrumental in establishing the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory Guitar and Composition programs, as well as the Focus Contemporary Music Festival. He also established the position of the Baldwin Wallace composer-in-residence. In 1973, as the first ASTA Guitar Division chairman, he organized the ASTA Guitar Convention that brought together U.S. university and college guitar teachers for the first time. The convention led to the establishment of the Guitar Foundation of America and became the model that has been replicated by the annual GFA Conventions.
A winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, Chobanian has also taught at the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Akron. An expert conductor, he often conducts his own compositions as guest composer with university, high school, and professional orchestras. In July 2015, he will attend the Music Festival in Strasbourg, France, where his composition “FANTASIA” will be performed by the Trio Bel Canto.
On March 15, Chobanian’s composition “Visage for Flute and Piano” was performed by Sean Gabriel, flute, and Debra Comadeca, piano, at the Cleveland Composer’s Guild concert. The composition made a strong impact and was very well received by the audience. “Visage” expresses the condition where a face seen many years earlier cannot be easily recalled. Musical motives represent the diverse facial features encountered.
New compositions that will be premiered next year include “SPARKS: Sinfonia for Marimba and Piano and Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra.” In “SPARKS,” the composer has elevated the marimba to function as a truly expressive artistic medium. In five sections the composition creates contrasts using sounds reminiscent of bird calls and the resonance of calm sea waves. Professors Josh Ryan, marimba, and Robert Mayerovtch, piano, will present the world premiere. “Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra,” which will also be premiered next year, was composed especially for bassoonist Renee Anthony Dee, 1977 graduate of Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. According to the composer, “The bassoon’s upper register has a beautiful quality, but it does not project as well as that of the lower register, which can be assertive and powerful. As a result, the orchestra parts can easily cover the upper melodic themes of the bassoon. Historically there have been many concertos for different instruments with heavy orchestral parts that would cover the themes of the solo instrument. In such cases the conductor often has to readjust the instrumentation to solve the problem.”
“… In the second and third movements motives from Armenian and Kurdish folk music, respectively, are introduced as part of the thematic development. However, at no time do the thematic folk materials introduced represent complete melodies.”
On May 8, Chobanian conducted his “Spaceflight for Orchestra” with the BW Senior Youth Orchestra. The composition describes the sensation, the excitement, and the feeling of the spaceflight experience. Being in orbit and in outer space gives the traveler a perspective unlike anything that can be felt on Earth. Inspecting Earth from a very fresh vintage point introduces visual details that were previously unimaginable. Above all, the composition is meant to delight the performer as well as the listening public.
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Bravo, dear Loris! Reading about you was a great pleasure and brought back fond memories of our days at the Armenian club in Baghdad. I still have the music sheets you sent me many years ago of your composition for guitar titled “Lament for Homeland.” The Baghdad folks are proud of you.