Four Acts For Syria, 2019

Animated short movie

This animated film was created with my film partner, Waref Abu Quba, who left Syria when the war started. Many of my ideas were inspired by my grandparents’ and parents’ stories, who told of living in a time in which Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together in Syria–in Qameshli, in Aleppo, and in Damascus. This film, created through the Robert Bosch Stiftung prize, is an homage to the country that was home to three generations of my family–refugees of the Armenian genocide–and to the culture that has most inspired my art and aesthetic. This visual journey, with a soundtrack by Kinan Azmeh and Zulal, the Armenian a cappella trio, and a poem written and recited by Raed Wahesh, explores the beauty and the recent tragedy that has defined this place, and opens outward with hope for a reconstruction that honors the historical and cultural wealth of my homeland.

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Well Wish Ya, 2019

The Herero and Namaqua genocide by the German Empire was the first genocide of the 20th century. This dance piece tells the story of that history through dance and visuals. I collaborated with the beautiful OYO Dance Company, choreographed by Philippe Talavera. The piece is about 70 minutes long and was premiered in April, 2019.

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Händel’s Israel in Egypt, 2018

Handel’s Israel In Egypt is a well-known piece in the classical canon. This commission was given to me by the Los Angeles Master Chorale to interpret from my perspective as a Syrian and the descendant of Armenian genocide survivors. It is a very large-scale piece, for full orchestra and chorus, about 80 minutes long.

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The Sound of Stone, 2018

This is a visual and musical piece that aims to re-create a world that no longer exists. Using images of artifacts, the piece recreates—through music and through live and animated visuals—worlds that we only know now from the fragments that time has allowed to survive. Composer Vache Sharafyan composed the music based on visuals by Kevork Mourad.

Performed by Zulal Armenian A Cappella Trio, Gevorg Dabaghyan, duduk, Shane Shanahan, percussion.

This piece was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and premiered at the museum on November 2, 2018.

The Island of Sighs (Akhtamar), 2018

The Island of Sighs is a multi-media theater piece incorporating live and pre-animated projected visuals (Kevork Mourad), dance (choreography and dance by Fadi Khoury), and live music (singer/writer Anaïs Tekerian), to tell the story of one of the most famous characters in Armenian lore. Tamar is a refugee of love and loss who is looking for her way off her island—a metaphor for the search of any victim of disaster to find his or her way forward out of the isolation of displacement and grief.

This piece was developed at BricLab, in Brooklyn, and performed as a work-in-progress in March 2018.

https://www.bricartsmedia.org/events-performances/island-sighs-work-progress