Chronological / Works in Progress / Musical Documentary / Solo / Small Ensemble / Large Ensemble / Opera, Voice, Chorus / Orchestra / Theater and Dance / Fixed Media / Film / Video Library
Expand on the right of each work for available listening, viewing, and program notes.
Published scores are available through Schott's PSNY. For unpublished scores, email mary@marykouyoumdjian.com
Published scores are available through Schott's PSNY. For unpublished scores, email mary@marykouyoumdjian.com
Ervoom em (I am Burning) - A Song Cycle made in Quarantine (2020)
Fixed media with field recordings and self-recorded voice, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, mandolin, accordion, percussion, & electronics / 17'
Fixed media with field recordings and self-recorded voice, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, mandolin, accordion, percussion, & electronics / 17'
Ervoom em (I am Burning) is a quarantine project made at a time in which composing for commissions that would either be cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic felt... difficult. It's an attempt to reawaken a teenage version of myself that simply enjoyed electro-pop and playing all of the instruments I had access to.
This piece is also a reflection on loss - not just of those great losses that we have experienced during the pandemic, but of my ancestral homes and culture. This summer I lost family in the explosion in Beirut, ancestral Armenian lands and the tip of a second Armenian genocide due to the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and places I grew up in that burned during the California wildfires.
Text excerpted from Komitas from the turn of the 20th century - Armenian genocide survivor, poet, musician, and priest. Field recordings recorded by myself in Armenia and of an Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh war protest in NYC this October. Much of my work involves documentary around the Armenian genocide, and this current war has reframed all of it. All voice and instrumental parts clumsily and joyously recorded by myself while quarantining during the pandemic (voice, flute, clarinet, accordion, mandolin, violin, cello, percussion, electronics). I am not a professional singer or instrumentalist by any means, but I wanted to try to create something new, without pressure, and that truly celebrated exploration and playfulness to process conflict.
1. Achkeris koon chi kalis / Ervoom em - Sleep escapes my eyes / I am burning
2. [Interlude] “Sanction Turkey”
3. Sirds haladz - My melted heart
4. Tsoon chi kali - It is not snowing
5. Sirds haladz - My heart is melted
6. Sirds garagov letsvadz / Sirds gragadz mnats - My heart is filled with fire / My heart stays in flames
7. Ambi dagin tsoon gereva - Snow is beginning to appear beneath the clouds
This piece is also a reflection on loss - not just of those great losses that we have experienced during the pandemic, but of my ancestral homes and culture. This summer I lost family in the explosion in Beirut, ancestral Armenian lands and the tip of a second Armenian genocide due to the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and places I grew up in that burned during the California wildfires.
Text excerpted from Komitas from the turn of the 20th century - Armenian genocide survivor, poet, musician, and priest. Field recordings recorded by myself in Armenia and of an Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh war protest in NYC this October. Much of my work involves documentary around the Armenian genocide, and this current war has reframed all of it. All voice and instrumental parts clumsily and joyously recorded by myself while quarantining during the pandemic (voice, flute, clarinet, accordion, mandolin, violin, cello, percussion, electronics). I am not a professional singer or instrumentalist by any means, but I wanted to try to create something new, without pressure, and that truly celebrated exploration and playfulness to process conflict.
1. Achkeris koon chi kalis / Ervoom em - Sleep escapes my eyes / I am burning
2. [Interlude] “Sanction Turkey”
3. Sirds haladz - My melted heart
4. Tsoon chi kali - It is not snowing
5. Sirds haladz - My heart is melted
6. Sirds garagov letsvadz / Sirds gragadz mnats - My heart is filled with fire / My heart stays in flames
7. Ambi dagin tsoon gereva - Snow is beginning to appear beneath the clouds
DARLING (2020)
Commissioned by Helen Simoneau Danse, created in close collaboration with violinists Andie Tanning and Austin Wulliman, voice Mary Kouyoumdjian
sampled voice and violins in fixed media audio playback/ 60'
Commissioned by Helen Simoneau Danse, created in close collaboration with violinists Andie Tanning and Austin Wulliman, voice Mary Kouyoumdjian
sampled voice and violins in fixed media audio playback/ 60'
DARLING is a piece for dance that explores vulnerability and intimacy through the presence and absence of touch. The work also intends the audience to question their assumptions about the relationships between strength, power, gender and size. The score was created in close collaboration with violinists Andie Tanning and Austin Wulliman through sampling recordings of guided improvisation sessions.
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Red on Red (2017)
Written for Jordan Morley, choreographed by Jordan Morley
fixed media, dance / 10'
Written for Jordan Morley, choreographed by Jordan Morley
fixed media, dance / 10'
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2 Suitcases (2010, revised 2017)
Commissioned by The Los Angeles New Music Ensemble
Rearranged for Eighth Blackbird
Available as fixed media with only the electronic track below
Version 1: violin, cello, bass clarinet, piano, audio playback / 9'
Version 2: Flute, clarinet, piano, vibraphone, violin, cello, audio playback / 9'
Commissioned by The Los Angeles New Music Ensemble
Rearranged for Eighth Blackbird
Available as fixed media with only the electronic track below
Version 1: violin, cello, bass clarinet, piano, audio playback / 9'
Version 2: Flute, clarinet, piano, vibraphone, violin, cello, audio playback / 9'
Dedicated to my parents, with words spoken in Arabic, Armenian, and English 2 Suitcases is in dedication to my parents' immigration story, as they settled in San Francisco from the Lebanese Civil War with only their 1 year old son and two suitcases.