Shoghaken Ensemble Debuts at the Kimmel Center with a Cavalcade of Traditional Armenian Folk Music and Dance on February 9
January 10, 2008
"Haunting, elegant, deeply spiritual and moving."
"There isn’t a better introduction to traditional Armenian music."
Shoghaken explores the roots of traditional Armenian folk music and dance at the Kimmel Center with a debut performance in Perelman Theater on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 7:30pm. Founded in 1991, the eight piece ensemble has performed at major festivals throughout the world including an invitation from world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma to perform at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in Washington, D.C. in 2002. The ensemble reenacts the beloved circle-dance rooted in Zoroastrian ritual, battle-inspired line-dances, and gestures and jumps traceable to medieval times. A haunting collection of lullabies, love songs, urban ballads, wedding dances, and minstrels’ tunes will be performed with authentic Armenian instruments such as the kamancheh (spiked fiddle), the kanoon (72-stringed lap-harp), the driving beat of the dhol (drum), and the mournful duduk (double-reeded flute), among others.
"The Shoghaken Ensemble does more than preserve fading rural artifacts – the band gives them eternal life through interpretations that are stunning in their drive, beauty and mystery."—The Boston Herald
This concert is the seventeenth concert in the World & Pop Series scheduled for the Kimmel Center Presents 2007/2008 season. The next concert in the series will be The 5 Browns on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 3pm in Verizon Hall.
Tickets for Shoghaken are $34 and $44 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Founded by dudukist Gevorg Dabaghyan in Yerevan in 1991, Armenian folk ensemble Shoghaken has performed extensively in Europe, Armenia and throughout the former Soviet Union. In 2002, Shoghaken was featured on the soundtrack of Atom Egoyan's film Ararat, a film about the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Additionally, the group has performed at the Smithsonian Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. in 2002, and performed a tour across the United States in 2004 with concerts at the Kennedy Center, Symphony Space in New York and Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center, as well as Harvard University, Cornell University, UC Berkeley and Dartmouth College. In 2006, Shoghaken performed in Paris at the prestigious Theatre de la Ville, a performance that was filmed for worldwide broadcast. Their album Armenia Anthology (2002) won the AFIM/NARM award for Best World Music Recording of the Year in 2003. The recording features Armenian folk, patriotic, epic songs, among others. Other releases include Armenian Lullabies (2004), a haunting collection of lullabies from historic Armenia, and Traditional Dances of Armenia (2004).
Kimmel Center Presents 2007/2008 season is sponsored by Citi. Support for the Mellon Jazz Series comes from The Bank of New York Mellon. The Great Orchestra Series is supported by ARC Wheeler. Additional support is provided by the University of Pennsylvania Health System and American Express. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Mellon Jazz, Mellon Jazz Up Close and World & Pop.
The Kimmel Center also receives support from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The William Penn Foundation, The Wachovia Foundation, Verizon Foundation, PNC Foundation, The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and the Philadelphia Music Project and Dance Advance, Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trust administered by The University of the Arts. In-kind support is generously provided by Deloitte. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents, and additional media sponsors include WDAS, WRTI, WJJZ, Afro-Pop, WXPN and WXPN's Kids Corner 20th Anniversary.
Free in the Plaza programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from Wachovia Foundation.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS SPONSORED BY CITI
Saturday, February 9, 2008 | 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
World & Pop Series
Shoghaken
Gevorg Gourgeni Dabaghyan, duduk and zurna
Hasmik Harutyunyan, vocalist
Aleksan Harutyunyan, vocalist
Karine Hovhannisyan, kanoon
Grigor Takushyan, duduk
Tigran Ambaryan, kamancheh
Vardan Baghdasaryan, kamancheh
Levon Tevanyan, woodwinds
Kamo Khatchaturian, dhol
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