WATERTOWN — Once again, the VEM Ensemble of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music was welcomed by hundreds of listeners in Detroit, Montreal and Boston this May in its second North American tour organized by the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada (TCA).
Each stop included community outreach sessions at local Armenian schools as well as full concerts held with local cosponsoring institutions and organizations. Dr. Melissa Bilal, associate director of the UCLA Armenian Music Program, also gave lectures in Detroit and Boston in conjunction with the VEM performances.
In its current configuration as a string quartet, the VEM members include Prof. Movses Pogossian on violin, master’s student Ela Kodžas on violin, master’s student Damon Zavala on viola, and UCLA alumnus Niall Tarō Ferguson on cello. The music they performed included works by Komitas, Aram Khachaturian, Tigran Mansurian, Dimitri Shostakovich, Arno Babajanyan, Edvard Mirzoyan, Goharik Gazarossian, Khosrovidukht and Johan Svendsen.
Pogossian at each performance masterfully presented background information which made the pieces more accessible and piqued the interest of the audience. For example, he spoke about the personal friendship between the composers Edvard Mirzoyan and Dmitri Shostakovich, which led to the latter to compose his Adagio from String Quartet No. 10, Op. 118, while sojourning at the Dilijan Composers’ Resort on Mirzoyan’s invitation.
He also revealed that one of the VEM members, Niall, was not only a performer but also had arranged the lullaby Orim, Orim, collected by Mihran Toumajan, for VEM to perform.
Detroit
The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
