politically fearless” terrifyingly dark” emotionally wracking” dives beneath surface musicality to find humanity” Intensely moving, boldly beautiful, this could be the future of a new kind of documentary” |
News
NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC/ commission for "Project 19" + collaboration with Scout Tufankjian May 10, 2024 at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Kouyoumdjian and photojournalist Scout Tufankjian create a new music-documentary hybrid that documents the current conflicts and impacts at the Armenia / Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) border, combining field recordings, interviews, photography, and live musical performance. Premiere at David Geffen Hall as part of the Project 19 commissioning initiative, inviting 19 women to create new works for the NY Philharmonic. 
ADORATION/ commission by Beth Morrison Projects, Trinity Church Wall Street, & OPERA America January 12-20, 2024 at Prototype Festival
An adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s film of the same name, Adoration follows Simon, an orphaned high school student. As part of a dramatic writing exercise, Simon’s teacher encourages him to appropriate details from a historical terrorist attack as an event perpetrated by his parents. When his story goes viral, Simon uses the hysteria within his community and on the internet to highlight the challenges of intolerance and racism in our society. The fictional and actual circumstances of the loss of Simon’s family are revealed in fragments, only fitting together with the final revelation that the prejudices of Simon’s maternal grandfather led to his parents’ deaths. Hate is too often portrayed as binary. We either hate or we don’t. We hate someone for something they did or some perceived slight, or we hate “the other.” Yet we are not born with hate—it is learned, nurtured, and developed over the course of a lifetime. Adoration tells two simultaneous stories—a fictional story of terrorism and betrayal juxtaposed with a real story of family strife and rejection of something foreign. 
PAPER PIANOS/ commission by Alarm Will Sound & EMPAC
Premiere: February 25, 2023; Upcoming performances in '24/'25 Paper Pianos is an evening-length multimedia work exploring the dislocation, longing, and optimism of refugees. The piece combines narratives from four refugees and resettlement workers: the Afghan pianist Milad Yousufi, Getachew Bashir (Ethiopia), Hani Ali (Somalia), and Akil Aljaysh (Iraq). Recordings of the protagonists from interviews conducted by creators Mary Kouyoumdjian (composer) and Nigel Maister (text and staging) are incorporated with the intricate hand-drawn animations of visual artist Kervork Mourad to vividly depict the dramatic emotional landscape of displacement and resettlement experienced by refugees throughout the world. |
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METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART / Mary Kouyoumdjian and Atom Egoyan's They Will Take My Island
Ongoing The Metropolitan Museum of Art commissions and presents Armenian-American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian and Oscar-nominated Armenian-Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's MetLiveArts commission, They Will Take My Island (2020), a highly personal 30-minute video with performances by the JACK and Silvana string quartets. They Will Take My Island is a collaboration between Kouyoumdjian and Egoyan over their mutual admiration of the Armenian painter Arshile Gorky, who has been highly influential to their work, and is a musical documentary hybrid infused with themes of family and immigration. The work integrates: (1) audio and film footage from Egoyan’s films Ararat, a film that explores the life of Arshile Gorky in the context of the Armenian genocide and modern life, and A Portrait of Arshile, a film Egoyan and Arsinée Khanjian made in dedication to their son, named after the painter; (2) interviews conducted and recorded by Kouyoumdjian with art historians and family of Gorky’s (Saskia Spender, granddaughter of Arshile Gorky and President of the Arshile Gorky Foundation; Parker Field, Managing Director of the Arshile Gorky Foundation; and Michael Taylor, Chief Curator of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts). Score performed by JACK and Silvana Quartets and mixed by Jascha Narveson. |
OPERA PHILADELPHIA / Presentation of opera, Unholy Wars
Sept. 23-Oct. 1, 2023 Unholy Wars closes the dusty history book and reframes the Crusades from a Middle Eastern perspective to reveal a new story of belonging and resilience. Conceived and created by Lebanese American tenor Karim Sulayman, music by Handel and Monteverdi is interwoven with that of composer Mary Kouyoumdjian to explore and reclaim representations of his identity. Reexamining Baroque interpretations of the Crusades and depictions of the Middle East, Sulayman asks "Can we lean into the discomfort of our collective history while forging a new path forward?" This boundary-breaking piece premiered at Spoleto Festival USA, where critics called it "emotional" and "powerful." The intimate staging directed by Kevin Newbury, with visual narrative by Kevork Mourad, explores the tensions of history, representation, identity, and survival through music and dance. |
TIME MAGAZINE/ interview
TIME Magazine interviews Mary Kouyoumdjian, along with human rights activist, Simon Maghakyan, for journalist Madeline Roache's article "What Biden's Recognition of Armenian Genocide Means to Armenian-Americans." |
CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER / Composers in Focus: Mary Kouyoumdjian
Ongoing The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Composers in Focus: Mary Kouyoumdjian, a performance of multimedia work to open myself, to scream in collaboration with projection artist Kevork Mourad. The work is a sonic portrait of the Romani painter and Holocaust survivor, Ceija Stojka, and will include an interview between Beth Helgeson and Kouyoumdjian. Available online. |
Featured Video
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY/ presents WATER AND DUST with violinist Helen Kim and Post:ballet
Water and Dust pulls its inspiration from author and journalist Mark Arax's book The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, which was recommended by dear friend Samuel Adams upon discovering our shared upbringing in the Bay Area. Arax investigates the water crisis and interweaves his family's narrative as Armenian immigrants to California – Water and Dust draws from personal memories of driving the dry stretches of farmland on Highway 5 with my own Armenian family's relocation to the state. Special thanks to collaborators Post:Ballet, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially to the extraordinary violinist Helen Kim, who so thoughtfully gives this piece its grit and flow.
Water and Dust pulls its inspiration from author and journalist Mark Arax's book The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, which was recommended by dear friend Samuel Adams upon discovering our shared upbringing in the Bay Area. Arax investigates the water crisis and interweaves his family's narrative as Armenian immigrants to California – Water and Dust draws from personal memories of driving the dry stretches of farmland on Highway 5 with my own Armenian family's relocation to the state. Special thanks to collaborators Post:Ballet, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially to the extraordinary violinist Helen Kim, who so thoughtfully gives this piece its grit and flow.
Header photo by Desmond White