NewsNEW YORK PHILHARMONIC/ commission for "Project 19"
The multi-season Project 19, celebrating the centennial of the 19th amendment, launches in the 2019–20 season with World Premieres by women composers plus collaborations with The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLiveArts performance series, The Juilliard School, the Academy of American Poets, and other partners.
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Intensely moving, boldly beautiful, this could be the future of a new kind of documentary” |
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ROOMFUL OF TEETH/ commission by American Composers Forum
ACF Connect Kouyoumdjian selected to write for Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth for their 10th anniversary celebration at MASS MoCA. Premiere in August of 2019 along works by Mingjia Chen and Peter Shin. 
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OPERA America & Beth Morrison Projects/ commission
Kouyoumdjian wins OPERA America commissioning grant to create an opera adaptation of filmmaker Atom Egoyan's film Adoration with Beth Morrison Projects and librettist Royce Vavrek. A student is asked by his teacher to appropriate a real-life attempted terrorist attack as part of his own family history, revealing bigotry, racism, and family secrets.
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Featured Video
Commissioned by Kronos Quartet – Lebanon, once the refuge where my grandparents and great-grandparents sought safety from the Armenian Genocide, became the dangerous home my parents and brother were forced to abandon during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). We often read stories and see images in the news about violent events in the Middle East, but we very rarely get to hear the perspective of an individual who lived through them. Inspired by loved ones who grew up during the Lebanese Civil War, it is my hope that Bombs of Beirut provides a sonic picture of what day-to-day life is like in a turbulent Middle East –– not filtered through the news and media, but through the real words of real people. The prerecorded backing track includes interviews with family and friends who shared their various experiences living in a time of war; it also presents sound documentation of bombings and attacks on civilians tape-recorded on an apartment balcony between 1976-1978.
Header photo by Dominica Eriksen