Mar. 27: MetLiveArts Presents Portrait of Composer Mary Kouyoumdjian with New Films by Atom Egoyan and Performances by JACK and Silvana Quartets

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214

 
Portrait Concert of Composer Mary Kouyoumdjian, They Will Take My Island,
March 27 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Featuring Unreleased Short Films by Atom Egoyan, Projections by Laurie Olinder,
and Performances by the JACK and Silvana Quartets 

Program to Include Kouyoumdjian’s Bombs of Beirut (2014), Silent Cranes (2015),
and the World Premiere of They Will Take My Island (2020) 

www.marykouyoumdjian.com
 

New York, NY (February 19, 2020) – 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.”

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

About Mary Kouyoumdjian
Mary Kouyoumdjian is a composer with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first generation Armenian-American and having come from a family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, she uses a sonic palette that draws on her heritage, interest in music as documentary, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new.

Kouyoumdjian has received commissions for such organizations as the Kronos Quartet, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble [ICE], Roomful of Teeth, OPERA America, Beth Morrison Projects, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Jerome Foundation, American Composers Forum, WQXR, REDSHIFT, Experiments in Opera, the Nouveau Classical Project, Music of Remembrance, Friction Quartet, and Ensemble Oktoplus. Her documentary work was recently presented by the New York Philharmonic Biennial and has also been performed internationally at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Barbican Centre, Cabrillo Festival, Big Ears Festival, 21C Music Festival, and Cal Performances. Her residencies include those with Alarm Will Sound/The Mizzou International Composers Festival, Roulette/The Jerome Foundation, Montalvo Arts Center, Buffalo String Works/Decoda Ensemble, and Exploring the Metropolis. Kouyoumdjian’s music has been described as “eloquently scripted" and "emotionally wracking” by The New York Times and as "the most harrowing moments on stage at any New York performance" by New York Music Daily.  

Currently pursuing her Composition D.M.A. as a Teaching Fellow at Columbia University, Kouyoumdjian studies primarily with Zosha Di Castri, Georg Friedrich Haas, Fred Lerdahl, and George Lewis. She holds an M.A. in Composition from Columbia University, an M.A. in Scoring for Film & Multimedia from New York University, and a B.A. in Music Composition from the University of California, San Diego, where she studied contemporary composition with Chaya Czernowin, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, and Chinary Ung; new music performance with Steven Schick; and modern jazz with Anthony Davis. Dedicated to new music advocacy, Kouyoumdjian is a Co-Founder of the annual new music conference New Music Gathering, served as the founding Executive Director of contemporary music ensemble Hotel Elefant, served as Co-Artistic Director of Alaska's new music festival Wild Shore New Music. As an avid educator, Kouyoumdjian has taught at the New York Philharmonic's Very Young Composers program, Juilliard's Music Advancement Program, Columbia University, is on composition faculty at The New School's Mannes Prep and at Brooklyn College's Feirstein School of Cinema. Kouyoumdjian is proud to be published by Schott's PSNY. www.marykouyoumdjian.com 

About Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan is one of the most celebrated contemporary filmmakers on the international scene. With 18 feature films and related projects, he has won numerous awards including prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Academy-Awards® nominations. Egoyan’s latest film, Guest of Honour, will be released in the spring of this year. 

He has directed theater and opera projects around the world with productions in London, Dublin, New York, Houston, Tel Aviv and across his native Canada. Egoyan’s stage interpretation of Samuel Beckett’s Eh Joe was recognized with The Irish Times/ESB Award for Best Direction. His award-winning productions for the Canadian Opera Company include Strauss’s Salome, Wagner’s Die Walküre, and Mozart’s Così fan tutte. He directed critically-acclaimed productions of Guo Wenjing’s contemporary opera Feng Yi Ting for the Spoleto Festival USA and the Lincoln Center Festival, Dr. Ox’s Experiment for English National Opera, and Janácek’s Jenufa for Pacific Opera Victoria. He has written librettos for composer Rodney Sharman with a premiere performance of Showroom this upcoming spring.

Egoyan has collaborated with composers Philip Glass, Daniel Lanois, and Steve Reich, as well as co-composing two songs with guitar performances on Gordon Downie’s solo album, Coke Machine Glow. As part of the Aldeburgh Festival in England, he collaborated on Nocturnal, an installation to mark Benjamin Britten’s centenary and Julian Bream’s commission of the seminal work for classical guitar.

Egoyan’s art installations have been presented at the Venice Biennale, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Modern Art Oxford, and the Manchester International Festival. Steenbeckett, his commission for Artangel in London, was selected for the Tate’s permanent collection.

About Laurie Olinder
Laurie Olinder is a multimedia designer, painter, photographer and textile designer. Ms. Olinder has designed projections for many notable contemporary composers and performers including John Adams, The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Henryk Gorecki, Mary Kouyoumdjian, The Kronos Quartet, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. Projection design credits include: Anatomy Theater (Red Cat Theater, LA Opera), The Sinking of the Titanic (Big Ears Festival), Brooklyn Youth Chorus with The Kronos Quartet (Roulette), Silent Cranes (Roulette) composed by Mary Kouyoumdjian, Bubbles (Roulette) composed by Alexandra Vrebalov, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field (Montclair State), Brooklyn Village composed by David T. Little with The Brooklyn Philharmonic and The Brooklyn Youth Chorus (Roulette), Persephone ( BAM), Lightning at Our Feet (BAM), 11 Excerpts: Philip Glass Operas (The University of Miami), Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Gorecki (BAM with The Brooklyn Philharmonic), Decasia (Basel Switzerland, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Angel Orensanz), Shelter with Bang on a Can (BAM), and The Death of Klinghoffer (BAM). Laurie is a founding member of New York's Ridge Theater and has been recognized with an OBIE Award, a New York Dance and Performance "Bessie” Award, a NYFA fellowship, and an Eliot Norton Award for Outstanding Design in the Theater.

About the JACK Quartet
Hailed by The New York Times as the “nation’s most important quartet,” the JACK Quartet is one of the most acclaimed, renowned, and respected groups performing today. JACK has maintained an unwavering commitment to their mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music. Over the past season, they have been selected as Musical America’s 2018 “Ensemble of the Year,” named to WQXR’s “19 for 19 Artists to Watch,” and awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. 

Through intimate relationships with today’s most creative voices, JACK embraces close collaboration with the composers they perform, leading to a radical embodiment of the technical, musical, and emotional aspects of their work. The quartet has worked with artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe, George Lewis, Chaya Czernowin, and Simon Steen-Andersen, with upcoming and recent premieres including works by Tyshawn Sorey, Georg Friedrich Haas, Clara Iannotta, John Luther Adams, Catherine Lamb, and John Zorn. JACK also recently announced JACK Studio, an all-access initiative to commission six artists each year, who will receive money, workshop time, mentorship, and resources to develop new work to be performed and recorded by the quartet. 

Committed to education, JACK is the Quartet in Residence at the Mannes School of Music, who will host JACK’s new Frontiers Festival, a multi-faceted festival of contemporary music for string quartet. They also teach each summer at New Music on the Point and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. JACK has done educational programs at the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, the Lucerne Festival Academy, Harvard University, NYU, Princeton University, Stanford University, and more.

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and appreciation of new string quartet music.

About the Silvana Quartet
Founded by like-minded musicians with a passion for the future of chamber music, Silvana (Nicole Sharlow and Andie Tanning, violin; Gillian Gallagher, viola; Maria Bella Jeffers, cello) was born with the natural ease of a flower blooming in Harlem. The instant chamber music chemistry was undeniable and the telepathic communication required by string quartet playing came effortlessly. The passionate energy of Silvana is palpable to the audience and draws each person in, connecting both performers and listeners in a unique experience.

About MetLive Arts
The groundbreaking live arts series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art explores contemporary performance through the lens of the Museum’s exhibitions, collection, and unparalleled gallery spaces with singular performances. MetLiveArts invites artists, performers, curators, and thought leaders to explore and collaborate within The Met, leading with new commissions, world premieres, and site-specific durational performances that have been named some of the most “memorable” and “best of” performances in New York City by The New York Times, New Yorker, and Broadway World.

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