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Concert Programs
Armenian Music of Grikor Mirzaian Suni (1876-1939)
Armenian Congregational Church, Southfield, Michigan
Sponsored by Tekeyan Cultural Association and The Suni Project
Maro Partamian, mezzo-soprano; Rubik Mailian, lyric tenor; Armena Marderosian, pianist; Sevan Suni, violin; Anoush Suni, violin + oud, great granddaughters of the composer
A Jubilee Concert
Mezzo-soprano Maro Partamian (in purple), Violinists Anoush Tamar Suni (20, in red skirt) and Sevan Siranoush Suni (25, in white skirt), pianist Armena Marderosian (58, in red), performed 27 works of Armenian composer Grikor Mirzaian Suni (great grandfather of the violinists) on Saturday March 10, 2007 for the 7pm AGBU Armenian General Benevolent Union 100th anniversary concert sponsored by the AGBU Philadelphia chapter at Armenian Martyrs' Congregational Church, Havertown, Pennsylvania.
Armenian Language
One of our goals is to help people learn to read Armenian.
Armenian Alphabet
Armenian Alphabet Confusing Letters (PDF)
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Suni Project's Armenian Alphabet Transliteration System >> It
is designed to show how to pronounce the sounds of the
Armenian language. [To view a clearer version, download
our 1997 CD Booklet in PDF format where you will find
the transliteration system on pages 18 and 19]
About
transliterations >>
The Suni Project has chosen a transliteration system to
help the reader and singer pronounce the sounds of the Armenian
language. However, we are providing, also, the Library of
Congress 1983 transliteration system as a reference. View
the Library of Congress 1983 transliteration system >>
Selected Glossary
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Georgian Alphabet
Georgian Alphabet (PDF) for comparison with Armenian alphabet.
Armenian Rug
Armenian Gendje
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Caucasian Armenian rug made in 1914 in Gendje, in Grikor
Mirzaian Suni's home region. Remarkable for the colors,
rhythm,
design, and themes. This image can be found on page 25 of
the catalogue, "Armenian Rugs: The Gregorian Collection",
The University of Michigan, Rackham Galleries, February 4-18,
1983.
Armenian Rug Replica
Weaver, Dale Johnson of Santa Cruz, California, has woven
a replica of the previously pictured Caucasian Armenian Gendje
rug. The replica was completed as of November 2003! Dale
Johnson is a retired professor of Chinese language and literature.
The Armenian inscription, shown in the below right image,
says:
2003 year Armena Ron Siuni
Professor Johnson has woven this rug for Armena Marderosian
and Ron Suny as a 2003 replica of the antique (1914) rug.
Armenian Art
Mount Ararat by Martiros Sarian
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Mount Ararat, also called by Armenians "Medz Massis"
(Big Peak) and "Pokr Massis" (Little Peak), or "Massis",
as seen from the east.
Painted by Martiros Saryan (born 1880), a contemporary of
Grikor Mirzaian Suni..
Photos
A Jubilee Concert
"Grikor M. Suni: Musician and Man"
 Grikor
M. Suni: Yerzhshtagetu yev Mardu,1943, Philadelphia hardback
red book in Armenian, 409 pages:
"Grikor M. Suni: Musician and Man" by Hagop Kouyoumjian,
who was a musicology student of Suni.
Photos, Musical Scores, and Documents (PDF, 8MB) from the book (75 images in order).
Grikor Mirzayants-Suni Chorus - Shushi 1902 / 3 academic
year (July)
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Photos from the archive of Gourgen (George) Suny and Arax (Kesdekian) Suny. 2006 Broomall, Pennsylvania
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Posters
Ann Arbor concert - January 2, 2009
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Armenian Music of Grikor Mirzaian Suni (1876-1939): free concert 7pm Friday January 2, 2009 invited by the Ann Arbor District Library, (Downtown lower level), 343 S. Fifth Ave, Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be presented by a chamber ensemble of musicians including Grikor Suni's great granddaughters violinists Sevan Suni (26), + Anoush Suni (21, who will also play oud), their mother pianist Armena Marderosian, (wife of Professor Ronald Grigor Suny), tenor Rubik Mailian, and soprano Anahit Toumajan.Grikor Suni collected Armenian folk music, thru all Armenian areas of the Caucasus + Middle East, from which he created beautiful concert works. Contact info Armena Marderosian 734.996-1949, armena1949@gmail.com, www.suniproject.org
Grikor Mirzaian Suni (1876-1939) is one of the founders of modern Armenian music. Born east of Lake Sevan in Getabek village, he was raised in the eastern reaches of Historic Armenia, in Shushi (Karabakh). Suni's music is beautiful, soulful, lively classical art music based in Armenian folk music of his own collecting, and includes vocal solos and duets, 4-part choral works, orchestral suites, and instrumental pieces. His music is unique, and at the same time "Armenian", and like the music of Bach is polyphonic, contrapuntal, and versatile, wonderful on any instruments.
From a long line of ashough singers, Mirzaian (Suni) worked with all the Armenian masters of his time, a close associate of Komitas (Gomidas) in Etchmiadzin. At the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music in the Russian capital, Mirzaian Suni studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov. Graduating from the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music, Suni resumed collecting songs of Armenians during his wide travels in the Caucasus, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and India.
World War, revolution, and the Genocide of the Ottoman Armenians caused Suni to flee to the US in 1923, where he first conducted church choirs, then Armenian folk choruses, soloists and orchestras, in New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia (where he settled in 1925), and supported Armenia from afar. When he criticized Stalin in 1937 his music was banned in Armenia, which is why his name is not as known now as it was earlier. Suni's son Gourgen (George) Suny (1910 Erz'room-1985 Philadelphia) picked up his father's baton in 1939 in Philadelphia, conducting Suni Choruses with orchestra, sometimes as Song and Dance Ensemble Concerts, to carry on presenting this treasured Armenian cultural musical heritage. Continuing in sharing this music are his granddaughters and daughter-in-law.
Performers in this concert are two great granddaughters of the composer Grikor Mirzaian Suni, and their mother, with the singers tenor Rubik Mailian, and soprano Anahit Toumajan. Rubik Mailian, born in Tehran, is Music Director and soloist of St. John Armenian Church of Southfield, Michigan, and teaches choral music at the AGBU Alex and Marie Manoogian Armenian school in Southfield. He is an alumnus of St. Nerses Seminary, holds a Master of Music degree (University of Houston), and Master of Arts in Theological Studies (St. Vladimir's Seminary, NY).
Anahit Toumajan, born and educated in Armenia (Armenian Philology degree, Yerevan State University, masters in Armenian Literature), teaches Armenian language, history, Armenian songs at the AGBU Alex and Marie Manoogian Armenian Day School in Southfield, Michigan, and loves singing Armenian folk songs.
Since 1998, Sevan Siranoush Suni (b. 1982) and Anoush Tamar Suni (b. 1987), violinist sisters, have been performing, separately and together, Armenian music of their great grandfather. Sevan began violin studies and classical violin performances at age 4, and Anoush at age 2. Anoush also plays oud, and sings with her oud, sometimes in Middle Eastern music ensembles. Anoush has studied with oud masters in Yemen and in Egypt, and hopes to study in Armenia next year. Sevan plays in the Stanford University Symphony Orchestra. In spring 2009 Sevan will complete her Stanford University Ph.D in population genetics, ecology and evolution, department of Biological Sciences, and Anoush will complete her B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies at Pomona College. Both will pursue further study.
Armena Marderosian (Suny), pianist wife of Grikor Suni's grandson University of Michigan Professor Ronald Grigor Suny, studied piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Ohio), Suzuki Method in Japan, and is a teacher trainer of Suzuki Piano method. Married into the Suny family, Ms. Marderosian heard the beautiful music of Grikor Mirzaian Suni, then learned that in 1924 her own mother Vanouhi Kazanjian at age 16 had sung in the Suni Chorus in Boston.
To make recordings of this unique and wonderful music, Ms. Marderosian started The Suni Project: Music Preservation, nonprofit 501(c)3. With help of the AGBU, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, and other donors, the first CD was produced in 1997, "Armenian Songs of Grikor Mirzaian Suni (1876-1939): Vocal Solos and Duets" with singers Maro Partamian, Elisabeth Pehlivanian, Henrik Mihranian, and Suni's own son Gourgen (George) Suny, singing on his 84th birthday, 9 months before his passing, with pianist Armena Marderosian. The Suni Project has two other CDs: remastered "Grikor Mirzaian Suni (1876-1939): Archival Concert Recordings" from Suni Chorus concerts 1935, 1940, 1971...and "Seda Suny 1986 Voice of America Interview Recital". Listen free on the website www.suniproject.org. Read Suni's (1919?) history of Armenian music published in Armenia 2005 with his autobiography, in Armenian and in English translation: "Armenian Music by Grigor Suni" also on the website, the creation of which was a grant from NEW Center, Nonprofit Enterprise at Work.
Recordings will be available at this concert.
Boston Concert - May 18, 1924, Jordan Hall
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Maps
Armenia and the Caucasus
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This map shows the location of Mount Aragats (Alagyaz, Alakyaz)
northwest of the city of Yerevan, the title of a Suni song.
It shows Mount Ararat, southwest of the city of Yerevan, also
called Medz Massis (Big Peak) and Pokr Massis (Little Peak),
or just Massis. "L" stands for Ler which means mountain,
e.g. Ararat L., Aragats L. The Black Sea is at left. The Caspian
Sea is at right. Lake Sevan is lower center. Lake Van is lower
left. Lake Urmia is lower right.
The map can be found on page 6 of Haikakan SSR Atlas (Armenian
SSR Atlas). Yerevan - Moscow, 1961.
Armenian map (1917-1921)
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This map shows Armenia in the period of the Russian Revolution,
the independent Armenian republic, and the establishment of
Soviet power (1917-1921). The Black Sea is upper left. Lake
Sevan is on the right. Lake Van is lower middle. Lake Urmia
is lower right.
The map can be found on page 108 of Haikakan SSR Atlas (Armenian
SSR Atlas). Yerevan - Moscow, 1961.
Mountains of Bingyol and Sipan
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This English language map is an excerpt of map # 193 (The
Villayets of Bitlis), on page 204 of Robert H. Hewsen's "Armenia:
A Historical Atlas." University of Chicago Press. Chicago,
2001.
It shows the location of Bingyol Mountain (south of the city
of Erzurum) and Mount Sipan (north of Lake Van), among the
mountains mentioned in Suni's songs.
Armenia and the Middle East (1878-1914)
Many Armenian Americans have heard of the villages and towns
their ancestors came from but don't know where they are. The
immigrants would identify themselves by their place of origin.
Societies were formed and still exist, such as the Armenians
from Istanbul and from Van, even with their own journals.
The Van journal is called Varak after the monastery near the
city of Van and Lake Van.
News
Articles
The Biography of Grikor Suni
Printed in The Armenian Reporter International, Fresh Meadows,
New York, November 28, 1998, pages 12-13.
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have difficulty viewing it, you may need to download Acrobat.
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Video
Dancing Vanetsi's [a 2-minute video]
Armenian
dancers from Van, Armenia filmed in 1946 in New York by Antranig
Shahinian. Among the 8 dancers are Andy's dad Vagharshag
and, the eldest, Levon Kazanjian.
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video and further explanation of the video now >>
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the free Quicktime player to view the video.
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