Author: zohrabcenter

An Evening of Poetry, Music and Art with Kevork Kalayjian and Family

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LoveLure2The Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center, together with the Armenian Studies Program of the Diocese of the Armenian Church (Eastern) will co-sponsor an evening of poetry, art and music on Thursday, June 20 at 7:00PM at the Diocesan Center at 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY.

Kevork Kalayjian will read works in English from his recent book, Love Lure: A Collection of Love Poems and Other Writings. His son, Aramazt Kalayjian, whose artwork adorns the book, will also speak. Aramazt’s wife, Ani Jilozian, will offer musical accompaniment on the piano. Mr. Kalayjian will also read some of his newest works in Armenian.

Mr. Kalayjian’s poetry has been said to have “a dream-like quality–existing in a world where beauty, humanity, and nature collide in a kaleidoscopic perspective.” The title Love Lure is a homonym for the Armenian Lav Loor, which means “good news.”

Raised in a family intensely committed to the Armenian Church, culture, and intellectual life, Mr. Kalayjian was born in Azez, Syria and graduated from the AGBU Melkonian Educational Institute (Cyprus) before earning higher degrees in Political Science and Economics. His highly acclaimed poetry has been published in Ararat Quarterly Magazine, The Armenian Weekly, and The Armenian Poetry Project. He is also the author of numerous published op-ed essays and letters of a more political nature, most in support of Genocide recognition and prevention. Some of these pieces are reprinted in his book.

All are invited to attend the  cultural evening, which is free of charge, and which will be followed by a reception. Mr. Kalayjian’s books will be available for purchase. A portion of the proceeds, at the author’s request, will support the work and ministries of the Diocese.

For further information contact the Diocese at (212) 686-0710 or zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org or via this contact form: 

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New Book on the Armenian Divine Liturgy to be Released at May 28 New York Reception

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2013-04 FAQBadarakA newly-published book by St. Vartan Press entitled, Frequently-Asked Questions on the Badarak: The Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Church, will be officially released at a reception on Thursday, May 28 at 7:00PM in the Tahlij of the Armenian Diocese Center, 630 Second Avenue, New York.

The event is being hosted by His Eminence Abp. Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese.

Written by V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan, Director of the Zohrab Center, the slim but meaty volume came about several years ago, when young people throughout the Diocese were asked to submit their questions about the Badarak. Fr. Findikyan, who also serves as Professor of Liturgical Studies at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, answered these questions and more, resulting in a book that will be of great interest not only to Sunday School and Armenian School students, but to their teachers and other adults as well.

Among the questions raised are straightforward queries such as: “Who wrote the Badarak?” and “Why do we stand most of the time during the Badarak?” to more weighty matters like: “Can the Badarak be shortened?” “Do women have to cover their heads during Badarak?” and “Do the bread and wine really turn into the Body and Blood of Christ?”

The reception is free and open to the public. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP by phone at: (212) 686-0710 or by email at: zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org. Books will be available for sale and the author will be on hand to personalize copies.

Professor Richard Hovanissian to Speak on Smyrna

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2013-05 SmyrnaThe Zohrab Center is joining a number of Armenian organizations to co-sponsor a lecture by Professor Richard Hovanissian entitled, “The Smyrna Catastrophe 1922-1923.” The lecture will take place on Friday, May 17, 2013 at 8:00PM at St. Leon Armenian Church, Fair Lawn, NJ.

The lecture is in memory of Dr. Marjorie Hovsepian Dobkin, author of the landmark study, Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City.

In September 1922 Smyrna, the second-largest city in the Ottoman Empire, was destroyed by fire during the final phase of the Greco-Turkish War. The destruction of the city marked the end of a strong Christian presence in the historic Aegean coastal regions and turned hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Armenians into refugees. In this illustrated lecture, Dr. Hovanissian, Professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at UCLA, will discuss the important role of Smyrna (Izmir) in modern Armenian history and the inferno that engulfed the city in 1922.

Hovanissian is the editor of the recently published, Armenian Smyrna/Izmir, the eleventh volume of proceedings from the UCLA conference series, “Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces.” This book will be available for purchase and signing by the editor.

The evening is being jointly sponsored by the A.G.B.U., Armenian National Committee of N.J., Armenian Network of America-Greater NY Region, Constantinopolitan Armenian Relief Society, Hye Doon: Armenian-American Support & Education Center, Knights of Vartan Bakradouny Lodge of N.J., National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, Armenian Students Association, St. Leon Armenian Armenian Church, and Tibrevank Alumni, in addition to the Zohrab Center.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

For more information call 201-791-2862.

Zohrab Center Co-Sponsors Book Signing by Matthew Karanian on May 9

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2013-05 KaramianFlyerNoted photographer and author Matthew Karanian will speak about his new book, Armenia and Karabakh: The Stone Garden Travel Guide, at a book-signing reception on Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 7PM at the ABGU Center, 55 E. 59th Street in New York.

The event is being c0-sponsored by the AGBU Young Professionals of Greater New York, the Armenian Netword of America-NY Region, the Armenian Students Association and the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Center.

Mr. Karanian’s books will be available for sale.

The event is free and open to the public. All are invited. RSVP here.

Armenian Monasticism Focus of an International Symposium in Salzburg Last Week

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Fr. Daniel Findikyan lectures at the University of Salzburg last week on Armenian Monasticism.
Fr. Daniel Findikyan lectures at the University of Salzburg last week on Armenian Monasticism.

Fr. Daniel Findikyan, Director of the Zorhab Center, was one of the featured speakers at a conference at the University of Salzburg, Austria, last week entitled, “Monastic Life in the Armenian Church: Glorious Past, Ecumenical Reconsidering, Challenge for the Future.”

Dr. Jasmine Dum-Tragut, Lecturer in Linguistics and Armenology and Dr. Dietmar Winkler, Professor for Patristics and Church History at the University of Salzburg co-organized the event, which brought together specialists in Armenian and Eastern Church Studies, monasticism, and ecumenism. Representing the Armenian Church, apart from Fr. Findikyan, were Abp. Nareg Alemezian, Ecumenical Coordinator and Dean of the Armenian Seminary of the Great House of Cilicia,  Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, Director of Ecumenical Affairs for the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, Fr. Pakrad Berjekian of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and Fr. Ruben Zargaryan of the Holy See of Etchmiadzin. Also participating were monks of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Peter in Salzburg, which was founded in the mid-eighth century and has operated continuously since.

Speakers traced the history of Armenian monasticism from its origins in the fourth century in Armenia and the Holy Land to its decline during Ottoman times, and its decimation as a result of the Armenian Genocide. The massive theological, scientific, artistic and intellectual contributions of Armenian monks throughout Armenian Christian history were displayed. Also surveyed was monastic life as it has reemerged in the twentieth century in the Armenian Church’s hierarchical centers and signs of a renaissance in Armenia today, with young men retreating to ancient, outlying monasteries in pursuit of solitude, prayer, and study.

Also noted were small but growing numbers of young women in Armenia who are coming together to live out the monastic ideal. By arrangement of His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, two young sisters will travel to Salzburg later this Spring to spend time in Salzburg’s eighth-century Benedictine Convent under the supervision of its dynamic and gracious Abbess, Mother Perpetua.

Fr. Findikyan’s paper, entitled, “Penitential Spirituality in Armenian Monasticism at the Turn of the Millennium,” studied a controversial theology of human sinfulness that emerged in some northern and eastern Armenian monasteries from the 11th to the 14th centuries, which resulted in the development of  liturgical practices such as the closing of the altar curtain and the withholding of Holy Communion during Great Lent, practices that present a number of theological, liturgical and practical problems in Armenian Church life today.

All of the papers will be edited in a book to be published in English in short order.

Czech-Armenian Musicologist to Lecture on the Armenian Sharagnots-Hymnal

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2013-02 UtidjianMaestro Haig Utidjian, a professional orchestral and opera conductor, and choirmaster from Prague will present a lecture entitled, “Yeghia Dndesian and the Music of the Armenian Sharagnots-Hymnal” on Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 8:00PM at the Armenian Church of the Holy Martyrs, 209-15 Horace Harding Expwy, Oakland Gardens, New York.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Zohrab Center and Holy Martyrs Armenian Church; and has been subsidized by a research grant from the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, VG180.

An unsung hero, the Constantinople-born musician Yeghia Dndesian (1834-1881) is a towering figure in 19th-century Armenian musicology. His largely neglected version of the Armenian Sharagnots-Hymnal, published posthumously in 1934, was one of the earliest efforts to transcribe Armenian Church melodies encoded in the ancient Armenian neumatic sysmbols known as khaz. Maestro Utidjian will examine this masterwork, analyzing Dndesian’s methods and making comparative observations based on the composer’s theoretical writings.

An ordained deacon of the Armenian Church and native of Cyprus, Maestro Utidjian has served as Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Sussex, the Ensemble Duparc, and the North Bohemian Chamber Orchestra, and also worked on a number of acclaimed productions at the Opera House in Liberec. He has guest-conducted in the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Armenia and Cyprus.

All are welcome to attend the lecture, which is free of charge. A reception will follow.

For further information contact the Zohrab Center at zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org or (212) 686-0710.

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An Evening of Poetry at the Zohrab Center

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Nationally-acclaimed poet Gregory Djanikian will read from his works at the Zohrab Center of March 13 at 7:30PM.
Nationally-acclaimed poet Gregory Djanikian will read from his works at the Zohrab Center of March 13 at 7:30PM.

Three distinguished American-Armenian poets will read from their works in a literary evening on Wednesday March 13, 2013 at the Zohrab Center in New York. Abraham Terian, Lola Koundakjian, and Gregory Djanikian will read from their work in English and Armenian.

Dr. Abraham Terian, a native of Jerusalem, is Professor Emeritus of Armenian Theology at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary. An internationally renowned Armenologist and theologian, his poetry represents an significant aspect of his creative output, if less well known than his scholarly writings.

Lola Koundakjian is an internationally regarded and published poet whose work has been translated into Ukrainian and Spanish.

Gregory Djanikian, Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania, and a native of Alexandria Egypt, has been called “a gardener of the human spirit.” His work has been published in several collections and has appeared in a number of magazines and journals.

Conversation and refreshments will follow the reading, along with the opportunity to purchase the authors’ books. The poetry evening is open to the public. A $5 donation per person will support the work of the Zohrab Center. Students with ID will be admitted free of charge.

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Scholar Uncovers Letters of Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan in Zohrab Collection

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Professor Roberta Ervine peruses the archives of Ms. Srpouhie Essefian in the Zohrab Center.
Professor Roberta Ervine peruses the archives of Ms. Srpouhie Essefian in the Zohrab Center.

One of the many innocuous, white boxes in a back room of the Zohrab Center holds dozens of personal letters from the 1950’s and 1960’s, correspondence between the late Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan and Srpouhie-Anna Essefian. The letters were recently uncovered by Dr. Roberta Ervine, Professor of Armenian Studies at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, who published a volume containing texts and English translations of Nersoyan’s letters that the former Jerusalem Patriarch-elect and Primate of the Eastern Diocese bequeathed to the Seminary upon his death in 1991.

2013-03 TANLetterMs. Essefian, who worked for twenty-two years in the United States Information Agency in Washington, DC, was active not only in St. Mary Armenian Church there, but also in the New York area. She served for a number of years in the Armenian Educational League in Brooklyn and was active in the mid-twentieth century Armenian life of New York City. In later years she took a degree in history at Georgetown University, writing a dissertation, entitled, Medieval Monarchies of Armenia. Her archives, containing several dozen letters, photographs, personal memorabilia, newspaper clippings, research notes and a diary, are housed in the Zohrab Center. The documents include a personal letter from His Holiness Vazken I, the late Catholicos of All Armenians; and a personal telegram from President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The correspondence between Ms. Essefian and Nersoyan, whom she had first met in the 30’s, span a period when the Archbishop was residing in Jerusalem and later in New York City. The congenial letters concern the affairs of the Armenian community in Washington DC and specific issues connected with Ms. Essefian’s ongoing armenological studies and research. Most interesting are allusions in the Archbishop’s letters to the situation of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, which gravely concerned him.

Dr. Ervine is continuing her study of these and other letters of the late Archbishop, which she plans to publish in a second volume of his writings.

Dozens of other archival collections in the Zohrab Center await exploration and scholarly study.

Ottoman Era Photographs. A Fine Exhibit at the CUNY Graduate Center

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2012-12 OttomanPhotoA small but fine exhibit of vintage photographs from Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon from the late 19th and early 20th centuries is currently on display at the City University of New York Graduate Center. The Center is located at 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street.

Many of the images come from the renowned studios of Armenian photographers working in Constantinople such as Pascal Sebah, J.P. Sebah, Abdullah Freres, Lekegian and Bonfils. Other photographers represented include Zangaki, Arnoux, Beator, Dumas and Lehnert and Landrock.

The exhibit comprises nearly 70 high-quality reproductions of original photographs in the private collection of Dr. Joseph E. Malikian, Ph.D., author of the recent album, The Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: An Anthology and a Photo History (Antelias, Lebanon, 2011).

Many of the photographs are exquisitely crisp and dramatic portrayals of peasants in their daily life against the backdrop of village scenes, mosques and churches in Egypt and Palestine.

The exhibit is been sponsored by, and is located in CUNY’s Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (Room 6304.24), and will be in place through May 2013.

The Zohrab Center Is Back!

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V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan, the new Director of the Zohrab Center
V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Findikyan, the new Director of the Zohrab Center

Please allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Fr. Daniel Findikyan and on November 15, 2012 I was appointed the new Director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab Information Center. I come to the ZIC from St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, where I was the Dean for twelve years. I remain Professor of Liturgical Studies there, helping to prepare our future priests and leaders for the Armenian Church. I am also recurring Visiting Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

How would I describe myself? I am first of all a priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church and a clergyman of the Eastern Diocese (to which the Zohrab Center is attached). God and God’s magnetic pull of the Armenian people today and throughout our history intrigues me and inspires me.

I am a Vartabed. My approach to reality is basically scientific (my undergraduate degree was in chemistry). But my graduate studies in music and my doctoral degree in Liturgical Studies (the history and meaning of Christian worship) draw me to the Numinous and Immeasurable. I love to plumb the depths of the oddities and marvels in the history and ways of the Armenian people. I love to challenge my students to rethink the apparently obvious and trite to discover therein astonishing things that speak to us today. There is something very Armenian about this.

Read about my background, education, research interests and publications.

My few days here at the ZIC have so far been filled with daily surprises. It will take quite a bit more time for me to get a handle on the treasures housed in our collection: books, periodicals, music scores, microfilms, artworks, letters, manuscripts, and historical artifacts. Last week I stumbled upon a large repository of 19th and early 20th century photographs. Strewn among staid portraits of clergymen (including one of the last Catholicos of Aghtamar) are marvelous scenes of family and village life in Ottoman Armenia. I’ll need some guidance in sorting through this trove and determining what it teaches us about ourselves and how to make those insights available to Armenians and to the public at large.

I’m looking forward to making the ZIC a place where Armenians and non-Armenians will come to discover who we really are in and through the literary, theological, musical, historical and other achievements of our past, and the vibrant spirit that drives Armenian creativity today.

Check back regularly for exciting opportunities to learn and connect with other inquiring minds and hearts. In due time I will be eliciting interns and others interested in assist in the ZIC’s work.

Contact me at frdaniel@armeniandiocese.org or (212) 686-0710 x126 if you have thoughts or suggestions. And stop by when you’re in the area.