Perspectives Ensemble in cooperation with the Center for Armenian Studies, University of Michigan, presents Dark Eyes/New Eyes: A Celebration of Armenian Music

Perspectives Ensemble, in cooperation with the University of Michigan’s Center for Armenian Studies, presents Dark Eyes/New Eyes: A Celebration of Armenian Music on Friday, March 20, 2020 at 7pm at Campus Chapel, University of Michigan, 1236 Washtenaw Court, Ann Arbor, MI. The performance will feature Zulal, a vocal trio composed of Teni Apelian, Anaïs Alexandra Tekerian, and Yeraz Markarian, and Perspectives Ensemble members, including flutist and Artistic Director Sato Moughalian, harpist Stacey Shames, and special guest artist, percussionist Mike List. The concert forms one of Sato Moughalian’s residency activities at the University of Michigan’s Center for Armenian Studies in connection with her presentation for the 2020 Dr. Berj H. Haidostian Annual Distinguished Lecture on March 18, 2020 at 7pm in 1010 Weiser Hall. Admission is free. Running time is 70 minutes. For information, contact armenianstudies@umich.edu.
 
Dark Eyes/New Eyes celebrates Armenian music in a program of village songs, as well as other traditional and composed pieces by historic and contemporary Armenian composers. The concert pays homage to the journeys of our families, ancestors, and departed ones. Six musicians offer lively and contemplative music, including sharagans (Armenian hymns), work songs and humorous songs, folk songs preserved by the great Armenian composer-musicologist Gomidas Vartabed in his own transcriptions as well as new arrangements, languidly beautiful melodies of 18th century troubadour/composer Sayat-Nova, music of Alan Hovhannes, and the beloved Lullaby from Aram Khatchaturian’s ballet Gayane–one of several new arrangements by Yerevan-based composer Artur Akshelyan. 
 
Featuring:
Zulal-Teni Apelian, Anaïs Alexandra Tekerian, and Yeraz Markarian
Perspectives Ensemble members:
Stacey Shames, harp; Sato Moughalian, flute and Artistic Director;
Guest artist: Mike List, percussion
 
About the Artists
Flutist Sato Moughalian maintains a widely varied career as a chamber musician, solo and orchestral player, and is Artistic Director of Perspectives Ensemble, which she founded in 1993 at Columbia University. She serves as principal flute for American Modern Ensemble and Catapult Opera; was a twelve-year member of Quintet of the Americas; guest flutist with groups including the Imani Winds, American Ballet Theatre, Oratorio Society of NY, American Symphony Orchestra, and Orquestra Sinfonico do Estado São Paulo, Brazil, with whom she recorded Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 and other major works of the composer.She has toured on five continents as a chamber musician, is an avid performer of new music, can be heard on more than 35 chamber music recordings, and was awarded the Catalan Ramon Llull Prize for Creative Arts in 2013. She has artistic directed 5 CDs with Perspectives Ensemble, most recently the critically-acclaimed Naxos recording, Manuel de Falla: El Amor Brujo (1915 version) and El Retablo de Maese Pedro. In 2019, after a decade of research and writing, Stanford University Press published Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian, her biography of her grandfather, who founded the art of Armenian Jerusalem ceramics in 1919 after surviving deportation from Ottoman Turkey during the WWI period of the Armenian Genocide. The book was longlisted for the PEN America Jacqueline Bograd Weld Biography Award and is a finalist for the Association of American Publishers’ PROSE Award in Biography & Autobiography. 
As soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal, harpist Stacey Shames has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Far East. Recent concerto engagements include those with The Riverside Symphony at Lincoln Center, The Munich Chamber Orchestra, The New Jersey Symphony, The Saint Louis Symphony, and The National Chamber Orchestra. She won first prize in the American Harp Society National Competition, and a top prize in the International Harp Contest in Israel. Shames has held the solo chair with the Saint Louis Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with whom she currently performs, tours, and records. She concertizes extensively with Aureole, her trio of flute, viola and harp, and the group has released ten recordings, championing new works written for the combination. Shames has performed on the soundtracks to over 100 films, and appears on-camera in many films, as well as on the acclaimed series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
In Armenian, Zulal means “clear water.” Zulal, the a cappella performance and recording trio-composed of Teni Apelian, Yeraz Markarian, and Anaïs Tekerian-has brought the beauty of Armenian folk music to stages ranging from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to Yerevan’s Komitas Chamber Music House. The trio’s original arrangements pay tribute to Armenia’s folk melodies, while introducing a sophisticated lyricism and new energy. The group takes Armenia’s village folk melodies and weaves intricate arrangements that pay tribute to the rural roots of the music while introducing a sophisticated lyricism and energy. The trio has performed in such esteemed venues as the Getty Museum, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, New York’s Symphony Space and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts along with performances for Cirque du Soleil, the Near East Foundation and the Silk Road Project. Visit zulal.org for music, videos, future performances, and more.
Percussionist Mike List is based in Metro Detroit and plays both western and non-western instruments from around the globe. His performances have ranged from world music in bars, contemporary music in art spaces, tabla in church services, and classical music in punk anarchist communes. He holds a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music in percussion performance from Central Michigan University and has also studied tabla, mbira, and Arabic percussion. In addition to his performing career, List teaches privately, accompanies modern dance, and teaches courses on the history of rock and roll and world music.
About Perspectives Ensemble 
Perspectives Ensemble was founded by its Artistic Director Sato Moughalian in 1993 as the resident ensemble for the series Perspectives in Music and Art at Columbia University. The ensemble has presented thematic concerts as well as programs on subjects that bridge the visual, musical, and literary arts, consistently receiving the highest critical accolades, among them Familiar Strangers: Gypsy Musical Heritage; The 19th & 20th Century Melodrama (featuring the NY premiere of Aaron Kernis’ Goblin Market); Homage to Catalonia: Music of Xavier Montsalvatge, Roberto Gerhard, Benet Casablancas; Charles Tomlinson Griffes – An American Original; and Music of the Mountains–Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring and the Traditional Music that Inspired It. Praise from The New York Times includes “first-rate performances by accomplished musicians,” “a superb recital by the Perspectives Ensemble,” and “rhythms were remarkably precise, supple and subtle.” Under Moughalian’s leadership, the ensemble creates musical events and writings that explore and contextualize the works of composers and visual artists. Its presentations, recordings, and publications-which can be heard on all major music platforms, as well as in live performances captured on YouTube-offer interpretations and viewpoints informed by the cultural and historical influences prevailing upon artists, and often bridge and integrate the musical, visual, and literary arts. Perspectives Ensemble is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. www.perspectivesensemble.com
Perspectives Ensemble collaborates with leading artists and musicians in concerts and recordings that feature the works of living composers and historic figures, shedding new light on their work through explorations of their music in the context of their time and place. The group holds an Artist-in-Residence position at the Foundation for Iberian Music at the CUNY Graduate Center, where they perform Spanish and Catalan music of the Modernist movement, world premieres of music by Casablancas, Vadillo, Artero, Sotelo, & Erkoreka, as well as thematic programs including Suriñach and the Creation of Modern Dance in New York and Homage to Catalonia.
The New York Times called the ensemble’s performance of
El Amor Brujo “stunning. Perspectives Ensemble worked [without a conductor], yet gave a performance that was remarkably polished, fastidiously balanced and full of electricity.”
Perspectives Ensemble has performed in Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Lincoln Center, Columbia and New York Universities, the Rubin Museum, Ethical Culture Society, the Morgan Library, and has recorded for Sony Classics, Newport Classics, Innova, American Modern Recordings, Naxos and New World Records, among others. It was a resident ensemble for the Young People’s Chorus of NY’s Transient Glory commissioning program, has served as a resident ensemble for the Miller Theatre’s groundbreaking Pocket Concerto Project, and has performed in the Composer Portraits and Bach series there.
Recordings include Sonnets to Orpheus by Richard Danielpour (Sony), Recollections by Karl Husa (New World), and Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Goddess of the Moon (Newport), of which The New York Times wrote: “The performances by the Perspectives Ensemble, an outstanding aggregation based in New York, are first-rate, with particularly fine playing by the flutist Sato Moughalian.” Perspectives Ensemble has released two recordings with Naxos: chamber ensemble works of Xavier Montsalvatge with soloists Timothy Fain, violin, Sasha Cooke, mezzo, Sato Moughalian, flute, and Blair McMillen, piano; and in 2019, music of Manuel de Falla, featuring flamenco cantaora, Esperanza Fernandez.
About the University of Michigan’s Center for Armenian Studies
The University of Michigan’s Center for Armenian Studies (CAS) promotes the study of Armenian history, language, culture, and society. CAS is built on the solid foundation of a rigorous curriculum offered by the two endowed chairs in Armenian studies: the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History (1981) and the Marie Manoogian Chair in Armenian Language and Literature (1987). A member of the International Institute, the center offers graduate student, postdoctoral, and visiting scholar fellowships and organizes educational opportunities for students, faculty, and the community.
 
This concert is generously supported by the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation in commemoration of the life of Danièle Doctorow. The Ensemble also honors the memories of our dear friends Hester Diamond, Winifred J Harris, and Si Newhouse. Additional support is provided by the Hegardt Foundation, the Si Newhouse Foundation, and many generous individual supporters.