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 For unpublished scores, email mary@marykouyoumdjian.com

Visit Mary Kouyoumdjian's IMDB page for her credits as a film composer, orchestrator, and music editor. For licensing or access to a demo reel, please email. Below are film/live music collaborations for the concert hall.

They Will Take My Island (2020) 
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with filmmaker Atom Egoyan
amplified string octet, audio playback, film/ 30'

​They Will Take My Island is a collaboration between myself and filmmaker Atom Egoyan over our mutual admiration of the Armenian painter Arshile Gorky, who has been highly influential to both of our work. 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 his wife Arsinée Khanjian made in dedication to their son, named after the painter; (2) interviews conducted and recorded by the myself with art historians and family of Gorky’s.
 
It is an honor to work with both of these artists: Gorky’s resilience in surviving the Armenian Genocide and living to create such meaningful and impactful work has stayed in my heart since seeing his work for the first time in Egoyan’s film Ararat nearly twenty years ago. Through this film, Egoyan became my first role model of a living Armenian artist who speaks loudly through pulling his heritage into contemporary and socially complex narratives. As Saskia Spender, President of the Arshile Gorky Foundation and granddaughter of Gorky, says in her interview for this piece: “When people are not in a position to talk about truths, perhaps because there is a political or conflict situation, then the artists are the truth tellers.”
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Collaborator and Film by: Atom Egoyan
Film Edited by: Cameron Davis
Interviews Recorded and Edited by: Mary Kouyoumdjian     
Interviewees: Parker Field, Saskia Spender, Michael Taylor
Audio Samples Include: Interviews and audio from Egoyan’s films Ararat and A Portrait of Arshile

For Audrey (2015)
Commissioned by Audrey Q. Snyder / In collaboration with filmmaker XUAN
cello, piano, and film / 5'

Dedicated to cellist and dear friend Audrey Q. Snyder. For the New Music//New Film initiative, with film (in progress) by Xuan.

Silent Cranes (2015)
Commissioned by Kronos Quartet, projection art by Laurie Olinder, poetry by David Barsamian
amplified string quartet, audio playback, live processing / 30'

1. slave to your voice
2. you did not answer
3. [with blood-soaked feathers]
4. you flew away

In commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centenary, Silent Cranes is inspired by the Armenian folk song Groung (Crane) in which the singer calls out to the migratory bird, begging for word from their homeland, only to have the crane respond with silence and fly away. Those who were lost during the genocide are cranes in their own way, unable to speak of the horrors that happened, and it is the responsibility of the living to give them a voice. The prerecorded backing track includes testimonies by genocide survivors, recordings from the genocide era of Armenian folk songs, and a poem from investigative journalist David Barsamian in response to the question "Why is it important to talk about the Armenian Genocide 100 years later?"

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Dandelion [for Andie Springer] (2010)
Commissioned by Andie Springer, film by Nikolai Antonie
violin, audio playback, film / 9'

Just as the seeds of a dandelion, a symbol attached to childhood innocence and play, are carried to destinations unknown, Dandelion comments on how the standard repertoire of violinist Andie Tanning Springer's youth influences her contemporary musicality that is strongly focused on the experimental and avant-garde. The prepared electronics sample extracted audio from home videos of Springer's childhood recitals. The manipulated video is prepared by artist Nikolai Antonie.
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Photo still of Ryan Gosling in "The Place Beyond the Pines"; orchestrator