MetLiveArts to Present Portrait of Composer Mary Kouyoumdjian

On Friday, March 27, 2020 at 7:00pm, They Will Take My Island, a multimedia portrait concert featuring the works of Armenian-American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian, will be performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the MetLiveArts series. Unreleased scenes and highly personal short films by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) are given original new scores by Kouyoumdjian in the world premiere of MetLiveArts commission, They Will Take My Island (2020). The JACK Quartet and newly formed Silvana Quartet join forces to form the ensemble. Kouyoumdjian's string quartets Bombs of Beirut, performed by the Silvana Quartet, and Silent Cranes, performed by the JACK Quartet, explore her family's history with the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide through survivor testimonies and documentary with projections by multimedia designer, painter, photographer, and textile designer Laurie Olinder.

In the world premiere of Mary Kouyoumdjian's MetLiveArts commission, They Will Take My Island (2020), Atom Egoyan's highly personal films and excerpts showing the life of abstract painter Arshile Gorky are infused with themes of family and immigration. Recorded interviewees include 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.

Kouyoumdjian enthuses, "I am a long-time fan of filmmaker Atom Egoyan and am thrilled to collaborate with him on They Will Take My Island. To me, he symbolizes an artist who actively works to preserve elements of our Armenian culture in a post-genocide era, bringing themes of our difficult history-humanitarian, racial, and religious conflicts-into intimately relatable narratives that focus on relationships and empathy. Exploring my heritage through these similar themes have become key to my compositional work over the past two decades - being largely inspired by Egoyan's films - through the creation of projects that confront social and political issues."

Of her work Bombs of Beirut (2014), the composer says, "Lebanon, once the refuge where my grandparents and great-grandparents sought safety from the Armenian Genocide, became the dangerous home my parents and brother were forced to abandon during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). We often read stories and see images in the news about violent events in the Middle East, but we very rarely get to hear the perspective of an individual who lived through them. Inspired by loved ones who grew up during the Lebanese Civil War, it is my hope that Bombs of Beirut provides a sonic picture of what day-to-day life is like in a turbulent Middle East -- not filtered through the news and media, but through the real words of real people. The prerecorded backing track includes interviews with family and friends who shared their various experiences living in a time of war; it also presents sound documentation of bombings and attacks on civilians tape-recorded on an apartment balcony between 1976-1978.i??"

In commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centenary, Kouyoumdjian's Silent Cranes (2015) 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. The composer elaborates, "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?'"

Performance Details

They Will Take My Island
Friday, March 27, 2020 at 7:00pm
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art | 1000 5th Ave | New York, NY
Tickets: $65. Bring the Kids for $1 (ages 6-16). Tickets include same-day Museum admission.
Ticket Link: https://rsecure.metmuseum.org/event/ticket/575319

Program:
Kouyoumdjian - Bombs of Beirut (2014) for amplified string quartet, audio playback, live processing [22'30"]
1. Before the War
2. The War
3. After the War
Silvana Quartet

Kouyoumdjian - Silent Cranes (2015) for amplified string quartet, audio playback, and live processing [30']
1. slave to your voice
2. you did not answer
3. [with blood-soaked feathers]
4. you flew away
JACK Quartet
Projection Art by Laurie Olinder

Kouyoumdjian - They Will Take My Island (2020) for film, amplified string octet, audio playback, and live processing [30'] [World Premiere]
JACK Quartet
Silvana Quartet
Film and Direction by Atom Egoyan