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Letter From The President

64th Armenian Night at the Pops

 

Dear Friend,

 

 

This year we are commemorating the horrific events that befell our nation a century ago.  Through the passage of time since that dark period we have come to understand that it is the perseverance and tenacity of our people that enabled us to live on through what President Theodore Roosevelt described as “the extermination of a race.”

 

Not only did we survive the genocide, we went on to thrive.  We have excelled in every field of human endeavor and the nature of our triumph in the struggle to prevail is testimony to that success.

For over sixty years, we Armenians in Boston – one of the oldest communities of the Diaspora –  have gathered at historic Symphony Hall to celebrate our culture, music and artists. This year we salute two Boston musicians belonging to distant yet connected generations. Somerville-born Alan Hovhaness, the prolific Armenian-American composer whose father hailed from Adana in Turkey, is represented by his evocative Prayer of St. Gregory for trumpet and orchestra. Maestro Keith Lockhart will lead the esteemed Boston Pops Orchestra in performing it in memory of the victims of the genocide.

 

Sixteen-year-old violin prodigy and Lincoln, Mass. resident, Sammy Andonian, will join the orchestra in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s virtuosic violin concerto, one of the crown jewels of the violin repertoire.

 

Please join us again this year, on Friday, June 5 at 8 PM at Symphony Hall, to honor our past, recognize our artistic achievements, and celebrate the emergence of a talented young artist. Maestro Lockhart and the orchestra will also showcase a program of works to be selected by the audience via their smartphones!

 

Tickets can be purchased on this site with no additional processing fees.  Pease order before April 30, to take advantage of special FACS prices.

 

Looking ahead, in October, FACS will present the Boston premiere of the Requiem by Tigran Mansurian, Armenia’s foremost composer, in a special concert to mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

 

Your generous financial support and enthusiastic participation over the years have helped FACS promote many exceptionally gifted musicians and present Armenian musical programs to Boston audiences.  We extend our gratitude for your trust and investment in our projects. 

 

Friends of Armenian Culture Society

 

Sammy Andonian, Violinist

 

Sammy Andonian began his musical studies playing the cello at age four and the violin at age seven, showing strong musical interest. Now sixteen, Sammy is in the eleventh grade at the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. During the school year, Sammy studies with violinist John Holland and cellist Mike Reynolds. While at the Heifetz International Music Institute in the summer of 2014, Sammy studied with violinists Grigory Kalinovsky, Ilya Kaler, and Elmar Oliveira.

 

 As a young musician, Sammy has won numerous awards and has performed with many orchestras in the Boston area. In the 2013-2014 Season, he was the first-place winner of the Walden Chamber Players’ Young Artists Competition, the New England Philharmonic’s Young Artists Competition, the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra’s Young Soloist Competition, the Brockton Symphony’s Feinberg Youth Competition and the Boston Youth Symphony’s Concerto Competition.

 

As a chamber musician, Sammy is the violinist of the Trio Adonais. They study at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School with the cellist of The Peabody Trio, Natasha Brofsky.

 

As an orchestral musician, Sammy is a member of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and is both a concertmaster and a principal cellist for their premier ensemble, the Boston Youth Symphony, conducted by Federico Cortese. As a member of BYSO, Sammy has had the opportunity to perform in Boston’s Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, and Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, among others. 

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