In Friday’s (4/24) Fresno Bee (California), Bo Huang previews the Fresno Philharmonic’s recent concert commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide with the world premiere of Cantata for the Living Martyrs by Serouj Kradjian. “It features the musical muscle of a full orchestra, soprano soloist Isabel Bayrakdarian (Kradjian’s wife) and 220 singers of the Fresno Master Chorale and the Fresno State Concert Choir on stage.… ‘Fresno will be responsible for giving the world a new work that puts Armenian history in perspective in a way that no one has before,’ says Theodore Kuchar, the orchestra’s music director.… ‘My goal was to present the genocide not only as an Armenian tragedy, but a human tragedy,” [Kradjian] says. The piece was commissioned by the Armenian Genocide Centennial Fresno Committee. Divided into three movements, the piece” features texts by Armenian poet Siamanto, who died in the genocide, Aram Haigaz, and William Saroyan. “Kradjian, whose great-grandfathers all died in the genocide … echoes a common story of younger generations: Those who survived never talked about what happened to them. And that fact is key to the title. ‘The people lost still live in us,’ he says. ‘But the people who survived were martyrs because they would never recover.’ ”
Posted April 28, 2015
