Arts & Ends for Jan. 23-26 - MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN€¦ · • Bay Area home prices hit another record...
1
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THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY Scaramucci out after 11 days in White House job Opinion: Why Trump's new chief of staff will fail, too Scaramucci erroneously listed as dead in Harvard Law directory Tomi Lahren bashes Obamacare while benefiting from it LATEST NEWS White House says Trump was joking about police Cubs issue World Series ring to Steve Bartman Virgin America computer systems hacked Airbnb responds to ad falsely linking it to terrorist activity A’s trade star Sonny Gray to the Yankees Fremont man busted in sex- tape extortion attempt of roommates Hamburger explodes when A's fan tries to catch ball with it Presidio Heights mansion designed by Bernard Maybeck asks $16M •'Before and afters' show transformed $645K Berkeley Victorian... •Adorable turn-of-the-century Oakland cottage asks $549K •Bay Area home prices hit another record in June Marshawn Lynch casually co-opts, curses on NFL Network broadcast The strangest news events at Bay Area airports Why SF is fertile ground for homegrown coffee shops TODAY'S TOP PICKS Arts & Ends for Jan. 23-26 Jesse Hamlin Published 1:56 pm, Wednesday, January 22, 2014 Mary Kouyoumdjian: 'Bombs of Beirut,' a Kronos project, offers 'sonic picture' of daily turmoil Composer Mary Kouyoumdjian's grandparents and great-grandparents escaped the Armenian genocide around World War I, settling in the cosmopolitan city of Beirut. The family thrived there until the start of the long Lebanese Civil War in the mid-1970s, which forced many of Kouyoumdjian's folks to leave and start over again in America. "Everyone has an aunt whose house got bombed. I have an uncle who lost a leg," says the rising young composer, who grew up in the East Bay burg of Pleasant Hill and now lives in Brooklyn. The stories her family and friends told her about life in Lebanon not only inspired her new commissioned work for Kronos Quartet, "Bombs of Beirut," which the group premieres Feb. 6 and 7 at San Francisco's Z Space, but they're an essential part of it. The taped voices of Kouyoumdjian's mother, cousins and friends, talking about their war-time experiences, intertwine through much of the three-part piece with music shaped to "underscore the emotions that the people telling the stories are feeling," the composer says. Kouyoumdjian - who turns 31 in March but was 29 when she applied for the coveted Kronos Under 30 commission given to promising young composers - also includes, at the end of the middle section called "The War, " the sounds of missiles and exploding bombs. They were recorded by the late Hagop T. Bazerkanian, the father of a friend, from the balcony of his apartment in a residential neighborhood of Beirut from 1976-78. Here, they're isolated from the sound of the voices and the quartet, for whom the composer has written Middle Eastern-flavored music that meshes with recorded sounds to provide "a sonic picture of what day-to- day life is like in a turbulent Middle East," Kouyoumdjian writes in her program note - "not filtered through the news and media, but through the real words of real people." Kronos founding fiddler David Harrington writes that as the group narrowed the field of candidates, "we were looking for someone who seemed poised to write their breakthrough piece. And every time I came back to Mary's work, I was magnetized. She's an exceptional composer, incredibly creative, and her connection to her family's Armenian history has brought her sensibility into a very beautiful place." Landing the gig was of course a big deal for Kouyoumdjian, who got her bachelor's at UC San Diego, a master's in Scoring for Film and Multimedia at NYU and has written a lot for the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble. Most of the great contemporary string quartets "have been recorded by, if not commissioned by Kronos," she says. She still recalls the thrill of hearing the quartet play Steve Reich's "Different Trains" - a classic piece for string quartet and tape that Kronos introduced in '88 - at Reich's 70th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall in 2006. It was her first New York concert. "Composers, especially young ones, apply for so many commissioning projects. So it's nice when it works out, especially with something like this," Kouyoumdjian says. She's writing another piece for the Bay Area's Friction Quartet, which opens the Feb 6. show for Kronos. Prepping for this work, in which nostalgic passages will be lightly enhanced with electronic reverb, and others filtered to suggest something heard on '70s radio, she listened to the music Kronos recorded with the Balkan Gypsy band Taraf De Haidouks. That Romany music shares elements with Lebanese music, says the composer, who was fascinated by how the quartet "accomplished that sound, how they did it with that much integrity. It doesn't sound like a watered-down Western version of the music." For more information, go to www.kronosquartet.org. You don't have to speak Yiddish Those of you not watching the Super Bowl on Feb. 2 might like to know that San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum is putting on a Live Yiddish Radio Show that afternoon, reviving and putting a contemporary spin on old radio skits, bits and jingles in English and in Yiddish (with subtitles). Among the actors, comics and musicians will be the noted Yiddish chanteuse Heather Klein and such superior instrumentalists as clarinetist Sheldon Brown and accordionist Rob Reich. Your host is Harvey Varga, author of "100 Yiddish Words the Average Puerto Rican New Yorker Knows." For more information, go to www.thecjm.org. Monica Pasqual at St. Cyprian's Singer-songwriter Monica Pasqual of the popular local folk-pop collective Blame Sally unveils her new band, Monica Pasqual and the Handsome Brunettes, Feb. 1 at St. Cyprian's Church on Turk Street. She's on a SF Live Arts bill with Spark & Whisper, an indie-folk outfit led by the singing-songwriting multi- instrumentalists Velvy Appleton and Anita Sandwina. You have to like those names. For more information, visit www.noevalleymusicseries.com. Big Bucks for Yerba Buena San Francisco's nonprofit Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has scored a major grant from the ever- generous James Irvine Foundation - $1.2 million - for community engagement programming over the next three years. In addition to creating new programs that meet Irvine's mandate to encourage "a greater diversity of Californians to encounter art," Yerba Buena will also use the money to expand current programs like YBCA in Community, which brings professional artists into "underserved" Bay Area neighborhoods. For more information, go to www.ybca.org. Jesse Hamlin is a freelance writer. E-mail: [email protected] TRENDING NOW SPONSORED CONTENT Recommended by MOST POPULAR LATEST NEWS White House says Trump was joking about police Cubs issue World Series ring to Steve Bartman Virgin America computer systems hacked Airbnb responds to ad falsely linking it to terrorist activity A’s trade star Sonny Gray to the Yankees Fremont man busted in sex-tape extortion attempt of roommates Hamburger explodes when A's fan tries to catch ball with it Woman hit by car and killed in Pittsburg PRESENTED BY: It Owns The Night. And The Morning. And The Rest of the... If you’re like many truck owners, you like to personalize your truck. That’s why Chevy offers a number of different... PRESENTED BY: Chevrolet Silverado Celebrity sightings in the Bay Area The Westin New York at… From $259 View Deals > Hilton Garden Inn Times S… From $235 View Deals > Row NYC Hotel - New… From $193 View Deals > Save 30%* Save 26%* Save 24%* VIEW COMMENTS Return to Top © Copyright 2017 Hearst Communications, Inc. | About Our Company Careers Advertising Ad Choices Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Your California Privacy Rights | Contact Customer Service Newsroom Contacts | Connect Sign up for Email Alerts Facebook Twitter Pinterest Google Instagram | Subscribe SFChronicle.com App e-edition The Chronicle Archives Subscription Offers Store Subscriber Services Taped voices of Mary Kouyoumdjian's relatives and friends contribute to the composer's evocative "Bombs of Beirut." Photo: Dominica Eriksen SIGN UP Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood gui... SFGATE Now Playing Free things to do in San Francisco SFGATE Sea Lion uses selfie stick SFGATE Jobs with the highest median salar... SFGATE Carroll O’Connor Almost Quit “All In The Family” Because Of This Cast Member (DailyForest) Desi Arnaz Kept This Hidden Throughout The Filming of 'I Love Lucy' (Definition) 3 Ways to Give the Gift of Connection to Someone Who Can't Drive (AARP) Angry Orcas Spend 30 Minutes Killing A Seal (news.dailyfeed.co.uk) 1 Simple Trick For Men To 'Erase' Forehead & Eye Wrinkles (handsomeman) Join the AARP for Only $12 for the First Year With Auto- Renew (AARP) Psoriatic Arthritis: The Most Common Symptoms (Yahoo Search) No It's Not Photoshop, Look Closer - Rare Historic Photos (HistoryInOrbit.com) Alienware Aurora (2016) Review (Computer Shopper) Beyonce And Jay Z Finally Reveal Their Home (Lonny Magazine) What You May Have Missed During This Week's Game of Thrones (LifeDaily) Memo: Make Jamie Oliver’s Crazy, Genius One-Pot Chicken ASAP A Japanese doctor who studied longevity — and lived to 105 — said if you must retire, do it well after age 65 France: 2 centers to handle migrants returning to Calais Photographer captures photos of North Koreans' daily life in summertime — and it's bleak Chuck Schumer was on the verge of tears speaking about John McCain after Republicans' 'skinny repeal' bill failed Man spits feces at Richmond police, forces highway closure last week Woman who stole $3 million from employer sentenced Itinerary: One day in SF. How do you show visitors the real city? UNESCO adds 21 sites to its World Heritage List What's new on Netflix, HBO in August Records: Child's body decomposing on arrival at… (Crime Scene) Inside the 'co-living' spaces where millennials… (SF Gate- Business Insider) 10 Things Only People With Depression Can… (ActiveBeat) Here's Why Millenials Are Obsessed With This Meal… (Food & Wine) Old Pictures Of Ruby Rose Are Literally… (Livingly) 53 Cat Pictures That Will Make You Almost Too… (Viral Kittens) They Never Recovered From Petticoat Junction… (Coolimba) 1 ‘Wonder Woman’ gives different perspective to an action movie 2 Tomi Lahren, conservative firebrand, bashes Obamacare while... 3 Scaramucci out of White House job as John Kelly takes charge 4 Twitter erupts after Anthony Scaramucci's ouster as White... 5 Man drowns after swimming in Lake Tahoe beach 6 Records fall in Game 2, fans brawl as James walks by 7 Sam Shepard, playwright, Oscar- nominated actor, dead at 73 8 Police: 15-hour SF standoff ends with shooting suspect in custody 9 New York Times: Scaramucci out as White House communications... 10 Itinerary: One day in SF. 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Transcript of Arts & Ends for Jan. 23-26 - MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN€¦ · • Bay Area home prices hit another record...
MORNING REPORTDAILY NEWSLETTEREverything you need to know tostart your day
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LATEST SFGATE VIDEOS
SPONSORED CONTENT
SPONSORED CONTENT MORE FROM SFGATE
Recommended by
Latest from the SFGATE homepageClick below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breakingnews and more Go to Sign In and Manage Profile at the top of the page
THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY
Scaramucci out after 11 days in WhiteHouse job
Opinion Why Trumps new chief of staffwill fail too
Scaramucci erroneously listed as dead inHarvard Law directory
Tomi Lahren bashes Obamacare whilebenefiting from it
LATEST NEWS
White House says Trump wasjoking about police
Cubs issue World Series ringto Steve Bartman
Virgin America computersystems hacked
Airbnb responds to ad falselylinking it to terrorist activity
Arsquos trade star Sonny Gray tothe Yankees
Fremont man busted in sex-tape extortion attempt ofroommates
Hamburger explodes when Asfan tries to catch ball with it
Presidio Heights mansiondesigned by Bernard Maybeckasks $16MbullBefore and afters show transformed
$645K Berkeley Victorian
bullAdorable turn-of-the-century Oaklandcottage asks $549K
bullBay Area home prices hit another recordin June
Marshawn Lynch casuallyco-opts curses on NFLNetwork broadcast
The strangest newsevents at Bay Areaairports
Why SF is fertile groundfor homegrown coffeeshops
TODAYS TOP PICKS
Arts amp Ends for Jan 23-26Jesse Hamlin Published 156 pm Wednesday January 22 2014
Mary Kouyoumdjian Bombs of Beirut a Kronos project offers sonic pictureof daily turmoilComposer Mary Kouyoumdjians grandparents and great-grandparents escaped the Armenian genocidearound World War I settling in the cosmopolitan city of Beirut The family thrived there until the start of thelong Lebanese Civil War in the mid-1970s which forced many of Kouyoumdjians folks to leave and start overagain in America
Everyone has an aunt whose house got bombed I have an uncle who lost a leg says the rising youngcomposer who grew up in the East Bay burg of Pleasant Hill and now lives in Brooklyn
The stories her family and friends told her about life in Lebanon not only inspired her new commissionedwork for Kronos Quartet Bombs of Beirut which the group premieres Feb 6 and 7 at San FranciscosZ Space but theyre an essential part of it
The taped voices of Kouyoumdjians mother cousins and friends talking about their war-time experiencesintertwine through much of the three-part piece with music shaped to underscore the emotions that thepeople telling the stories are feeling the composer says
Kouyoumdjian - who turns 31 in March but was 29 when she applied for the coveted Kronos Under 30commission given to promising young composers - also includes at the end of the middle section calledThe War the sounds of missiles and exploding bombs They were recorded by the late Hagop TBazerkanian the father of a friend from the balcony of his apartment in a residential neighborhood ofBeirut from 1976-78
Here theyre isolated from the sound of the voices and the quartet for whom the composer has writtenMiddle Eastern-flavored music that meshes with recorded sounds to provide a sonic picture of what day-to-day life is like in a turbulent Middle East Kouyoumdjian writes in her program note - not filtered throughthe news and media but through the real words of real people
Kronos founding fiddler David Harrington writes that as the group narrowed the field of candidates wewere looking for someone who seemed poised to write their breakthrough piece And every time I came backto Marys work I was magnetized Shes an exceptional composer incredibly creative and her connection toher familys Armenian history has brought her sensibility into a very beautiful place
Landing the gig was of course a big deal for Kouyoumdjian who got her bachelors at UC San Diego amasters in Scoring for Film and Multimedia at NYU and has written a lot for the Los Angeles New MusicEnsemble
Most of the great contemporary string quartets have been recorded by if not commissioned by Kronos shesays She still recalls the thrill of hearing the quartet play Steve Reichs Different Trains - a classic piecefor string quartet and tape that Kronos introduced in 88 - at Reichs 70th birthday celebration at CarnegieHall in 2006 It was her first New York concert
Composers especially young ones apply for so many commissioning projects So its nice when it worksout especially with something like this Kouyoumdjian says Shes writing another piece for the Bay AreasFriction Quartet which opens the Feb 6 show for Kronos
Prepping for this work in which nostalgic passages will be lightly enhanced with electronic reverb andothers filtered to suggest something heard on 70s radio she listened to the music Kronos recorded with theBalkan Gypsy band Taraf De Haidouks
That Romany music shares elements with Lebanese music says the composer who was fascinated by howthe quartet accomplished that sound how they did it with that much integrity It doesnt sound like awatered-down Western version of the music
For more information go to wwwkronosquartetorg
You dont have to speak YiddishThose of you not watching the Super Bowl on Feb 2 might like to know that San FranciscosContemporary Jewish Museum is putting on a Live Yiddish Radio Show that afternoon reviving andputting a contemporary spin on old radio skits bits and jingles in English and in Yiddish (with subtitles)Among the actors comics and musicians will be the noted Yiddish chanteuse Heather Klein and suchsuperior instrumentalists as clarinetist Sheldon Brown and accordionist Rob Reich Your host is HarveyVarga author of 100 Yiddish Words the Average Puerto Rican New Yorker Knows
For more information go to wwwthecjmorg
Monica Pasqual at St CypriansSinger-songwriter Monica Pasqual of the popular local folk-pop collective Blame Sally unveils her newband Monica Pasqual and the Handsome Brunettes Feb 1 at St Cyprians Church on Turk StreetShes on a SF Live Arts bill with Spark amp Whisper an indie-folk outfit led by the singing-songwriting multi-instrumentalists Velvy Appleton and Anita Sandwina You have to like those names
For more information visit wwwnoevalleymusicseriescom
Big Bucks for Yerba BuenaSan Franciscos nonprofit Yerba Buena Center for the Arts has scored a major grant from the ever-generous James Irvine Foundation - $12 million - for community engagement programming over the nextthree years In addition to creating new programs that meet Irvines mandate to encourage a greaterdiversity of Californians to encounter art Yerba Buena will also use the money to expand current programslike YBCA in Community which brings professional artists into underserved Bay Area neighborhoods
For more information go to wwwybcaorg
Jesse Hamlin is a freelance writer E-mail 96hourssfchroniclecom
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SPONSORED CONTENT
Recommended by
MOST POPULAR
LATEST NEWS
White House says Trump was jokingabout police
Cubs issue World Series ring to SteveBartman
Virgin America computer systems hacked
Airbnb responds to ad falsely linking it toterrorist activity
Arsquos trade star Sonny Gray to the Yankees
Fremont man busted in sex-tapeextortion attempt of roommates
Hamburger explodes when As fan triesto catch ball with it
Woman hit by car and killed in Pittsburg
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It Owns The Night And TheMorning And The Rest oftheIf yoursquore like many truck owners you liketo personalize your truck Thatrsquos whyChevy offers a number of different
PRESENTED BY Chevrolet Silverado
Celebrity sightings in theBay Area
The WestinNew York athellip
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From $235View Deals gt
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Taped voices of Mary Kouyoumdjians relatives and friends contribute to the composers evocative Bombs of Beirut
Photo Dominica Eriksen
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Join the AARP for Only $12 for the First Year With Auto-Renew (AARP)
Psoriatic Arthritis The Most Common Symptoms (YahooSearch)
No Its Not Photoshop Look Closer - Rare Historic Photos(HistoryInOrbitcom)
Alienware Aurora (2016) Review (Computer Shopper)
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What You May Have Missed During This Weeks Game ofThrones (LifeDaily)
Memo Make Jamie Oliverrsquos Crazy Genius One-Pot ChickenASAP
A Japanese doctor who studied longevity mdash and lived to 105mdash said if you must retire do it well after age 65
France 2 centers to handle migrants returning to Calais
Photographer captures photos of North Koreans daily life insummertime mdash and its bleak
Chuck Schumer was on the verge of tears speaking aboutJohn McCain after Republicans skinny repeal bill failed
Man spits feces at Richmond police forces highway closurelast week
Woman who stole $3 million from employer sentenced
Itinerary One day in SF How do you showvisitors the real city
UNESCO adds 21 sites to its WorldHeritage List
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53 Cat PicturesThat Will Make YouAlmost Toohellip(Viral Kittens)
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1 lsquoWonder Womanrsquo gives differentperspective to an action movie
2 Tomi Lahren conservative firebrandbashes Obamacare while
3 Scaramucci out of White House job asJohn Kelly takes charge
4 Twitter erupts after AnthonyScaramuccis ouster as White
5 Man drowns after swimming in LakeTahoe beach
6 Records fall in Game 2 fans brawl asJames walks by
7 Sam Shepard playwright Oscar-nominated actor dead at 73
8 Police 15-hour SF standoff ends withshooting suspect in custody
9 New York Times Scaramucci out asWhite House communications
10 Itinerary One day in SF What do youdo to show visitors the
Twitter erupts afterScaramucci is oustedfrom White House job
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