Anmar munah mer kulkheen Zulaleen Arevuh!

Hamazkayin, a cultural organization dedicated to promoting, enriching and preserving Armenian culture. At least, that is what I think Hamazkayin is, does and stands for. One of the many reasons I pride myself in my Armenian heritage is our "mushagouyt". As diasporans it's what we cling to, it's our identity.

Attending Armenian school as a child I loved "Mushagooyti Amees" when the entire month would be dedicated to celebrating our culture, the "Keereroo Kyood" and the "Voske Tar" seemed so lavish and exciting to me. It was the most exciting time of the year Armenian singers would come sing to us and our art projects would entail making "makaghat" and writing the Armenian Alphabet on it like Mesrob Mashtos. Outside of school Hamazkayin would serve to provide events like "kinetson"'s or Barakhoump performances, comedy nights, plays etc etc. In recent years I haven't been as active in the Armenian community as I used to be, however every once in a while an event catches my attention and I do my best to be there rain or shine.

Last year I heard about, but was unable to attend, Hamazkayin's Mosaic concert. I kept hearing great things about that event, so I wasn't about to miss the opportunity to attend Mosaic II in 2008. I had heard that last year Element, Gor, and Zulal had been featured performers. I've seen Gor and Element perform and enjoy their music, but I hadn't yet seen Zulal live and their music is simply amazing so I decided that I would battle the rain and get myself to Mosaic this year!

So on a rainy chilly night we set our for Alex theater in Glendale. I wasn't expecting the MC's to be comedians Lory Tatoulian and Ara Basil. It wasn't the type of comedy I had come to expect from Hamazkayin events in the past. These comedians were nothing like Vahe Berberian and his cronies. I looked around, as crude jokes were flying about, at the families who had brought their young children to a Hamazkayin event to experience Armenian culture and wondered what those parents were thinking about the jokes that were not appropriate for kids. When I was a kid we got Ani Barakhoump and long poems by Mari Rose Abousefian or whatever her name was and here are these kids getting jokes delivered in English about Kim Kardashian and sheep testicles.

The opening act was a rock band called Cantus Capella. Their music was 99% English and extremely loud. I didn't think they were bad and I wouldn't mind seeing them perform at the Troubador or Roxy but I couldn't help but wonder how this band's music reflected Armenian culture. Their songs and lyrics had no Armenian influence or content. Does the fact that band members are Armenian cut it? They did do the song Cilicia which I learned as a child when the Catholicos was coming to visit our school. I consider it a precious song for our community and yet here it was being performed by a rock band. I was perplexed, was this a good thing for the kids in the audience to be seeing? Is it going to make them think the song is cool? Are they going to understand why that song means so much to our community?

The next band was Visa. Once again some members of the band were Armenian, some of the instruments were Armenian and there were definite Armenian influences in the melodies but once again all the songs were sung in English and the lyrics had nothing to do with anything Armenian. It was nice to see this band because Djivan Gasparyan's grandson was playing the duduk and like I said the instruments and melodies did reflect Armenian influences but I couldn't help but wish they were just an instrumental band.

I must say at intermission I found myself wishing Element and Gor would have been in the show. I was relieved that Zulal was up after the intermission. Hearing the a capella Armenian lyrics and melodies had the audience captivated. Before each song they would briefly explain what the song was about. After each song the audience would clap and cheer and whistle bustling with excitement. They did songs from their old album and new album. One of the songs from their new album that I hadn't heard yet was so beautiful it made me cry. I'll admit it! I felt pretty silly but then I looked over at my cousin and she was tearing as well. Music had only moved me to tears like that once before and that was also after hearing a beautiful Armenian song after hours of hearing 'odar' music. I know I'm biased but Armenian is so much more beautiful to the ear! If you couldn't guess Zulal received an encore ovation and they came out and did a medley. They saved the day and made my trip out to Glendale worthwhile!



The next performer was a pianist/vocalist named Areni and her partner was an "odar" on the sax. They did a semi Armenian piece which had me thinking she should drop the sax and pair up with a duduk player. I know it's artistic and creative to pair Armenian pieces with instruments other than the usual Armenian ones, but at the risk of sounding super old fashioned, I like how our music and instruments sound and I don't think our culture or music is broken so I don't think it needs to be tweaked or changed up to these extreme extents. I think Zulal has managed to find a fresh new way to present classic songs like Ghapama, Sari Siroun Yar, Hars em Gnoum etc etc.

The performances I was seeing were somewhat upsetting to me. I couldn't help but see the parallel of what was happening in our community, reflecting itself in the musical realm. Our traditional instruments, songs and melodies were being mixed in with 'odar' ones and being assimilated. The marriage of Armenian musical elements with those of 'odar' ones was making me want to yell "voooch" I found it disturbing that instead of preserving our cultural elements Hamazkayin was embracing the changes. I guess I'm having trouble accepting this reality in both the societal realm and musical one.

We left during Areni's set and didn't stick around to see Sonya Varoujan. The first two band's sets had been so long that by this point we had been there for over 2 hours. In addition, I was done, I saw Zulal and didn't care to see more. I wasn't getting to experience the "Mushagouyt" I had come to absorb. I felt like the first half of the event should have been called "Hye-Rock". However, who knows.... maybe things like this draw people in, maybe people like it and the kids today need the 'rock' aspect to draw them in? Maybe I need to be grateful that the kids there that night got to see Zulal? I'm not sure but you can bet your "makaghat" that I'm going to be asking every kid I come across what they think!

I do commend the bands, they were all talented and I enjoyed their music. I just had trouble seeing how it all fit with "Hamazkayin".