Lecture on the Legacy of Komitas to Take Place in Watertown on Nov. 5.

WATERTOWN, Mass.—The Armenian Museum of America and the Institute of Art of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences are proud to present the legacy of Komitas as a composer and his influence on international and Armenian Music.

Komitas (Photo: Komitas Museum-Institute)

The lecturer will be Dr. Mher Navoyan of the Art institute of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. The piano performance of the works of Komitas will be by Professor Lilit Karapetian Shugarian of New England Conservatory.

The program will take place on Nov. 5, at 2 p.m., at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown. It is funded by a generous grant from the Dadourian Foundation.

Recognized as one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology,Komitas was an Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer, and choirmaster. He is considered the founder of the Armenian national school of music.

Navoyan is the best-known authority on Komitas Vartabed. In 1993, he graduated from the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan as an orchestral performer, and in 1994 as a musicologist. Since 1995 he has been a professor at Yerevan State Conservatory, as lecturer of “History of Armenian Music,” “The Basis of East Classical Music,” “Armenian Sacred Music,” and “History of World Music” (History of Europe Music of the second part of the XIX and the first part of the XX centuries). Since 2000, he has been a supervisor of a specialized course for students of musicological department. Since 2011, he has been the prorector for research affairs, and since 2015 the head of the scientific council at Komitas Museum-Institute.

Navoyan has participated in numerous local and International conferences. He has lectured and reported at Central European University (Budapesht, 2000), Institute of Eastern languages in Paris (2003), World Cultures Institute in Paris (2009), universities of Helsinki and Joensoo (Finland, 2005), the Church music Department of Sibelius Music Academy in Kuopio (Finland,  2005), J. Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw (Poland, 2008), Humboldt University in Berlin (Germany, 2012), Tubingen University (Germany 2012), Marktoberdorf Music Academy (Germany, 2012), Sheremetev Palace in St. Petersburg (Russia, 2014), among others.

Lilit Karapetian-Shougarian has performed extensively in her native Armenia and the former Soviet Union, as well as internationally. Her solo appearances and frequent contributions to a number of ensembles have won acclaim from renowned authorities in the musical world. She graduated with honors from the graduate piano class of Professor Lev Vlasenko and Mikhail Pletnev at the Moscow Conservatory. Among the highlights of her performing and teaching career are the prize at the Transcaucasian Music Competition in 1981 and the professorship at the Yerevan State Conservatory, where she taught a piano class and also the methods of piano teaching from 1988 to 2005. From 1986 to 1988 Lilit Karapetian-Shougarian also assisted Professor Lev Vlasenko in his piano class at the Moscow Conservatory.

In September 2009, she joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory and Continuing Education Departments, where she currently teaches a piano class.

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2 Comments

  1. My Historical Poetry Collection of 372 condensed pages of paintings and my poems on each painting and sculpture about Gomidas, available in Komidas Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia,
    “Gomidas~Komitas My Musical Saint” (April 2016)

    Sylva’s Poetry Collections since July 2007:
    Lance my Hart {Heart} at a Glance (July 2007)
    Translated into Arabic (2018)
    Delete Depression ~ Type Inspiration (November 2007)
    A Poetic Soul Shined of Genocides (August 2008)
    Angel “Lilit” Lilting via Internet (October 2008)
    Sons: Take My Heart and Transplant (February 2009)
    Millennium Brains Lacrimade (March 2009)
    Politics Play ~ People Pay (May 2009)
    E-Mails: Beneath Blossoming Trees (June 2009)
    Songs of Searing Desert Storms (December 2009)
    Sylva’s Serenade Dative Eyes (January 2010)
    My Son~My Sun: Chants Ann, Obama’s Mother (June 2011)
    Syndromes of Souls (March 2012)
    Carve Poetry ‘into’ Your Psyche (July 2014)
    Gomidas~Komitas, ‘My Musical Saint’ (April 2016)
    Arches of Symphonious ‘Sabre Dance’ (April 2017)
    Churchill at Ararat with Sylva’s Ethereal Love Songs (January 2018)
    ‘BRING OUT’ Our Genocided Skulls & Artful Hands (April 2018)
    Your Brain ‘IS NOT’a Box (2018)
    When I Was Young {Sylva’s Armenian Youth Poems (2018})

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