“Ayo” off my new EP #YoungLion Stream / download at NazoBravo.com or hit link in bio And for those who don’t know the word #Ayo means “YEAH!” in #Armenian
Armenian dancer! The text reads Tamzara, it’s a traditional Armenian dance and I’m not sure this is a pose from it but here we go (gotta start collecting more research!)
Pin terminating in three eagles’ heads. 8th–7th century BC, Armenia (Kingdom of Ararat), Silver. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Period: Iron Age III Date: ca. 7th century B.C. Geography: Urartu Culture: Urartian Medium: Silver Dimensions: 3.19 in. (8.1 cm) Classification: Metalwork-Ornaments Credit Line: Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989
Oscar H. Banker, born as Asatour Sarafian (1895 – January 1979) was an Armenian American inventor who invented the automatic transmission for automobiles. Considered as the ‘father of automatic transmission’ he was also responsible for the invention of the needle-less inoculation gun, the primary controls of the first Sikorsky helicopter, and power steering.
Sarafyan was born in Kayseri in 1895 in a cave his parents took shelter to escape the Hamidian massacres of the Hamidiye cavalry regiments of the Ottoman Empire, and migrated to the USA in 1914.
Arriving in Chicago as a teenager, Safarian adopted his new name Oscar Banker. His first break through as an inventor happened when General Motors adopted his automatic transmission system after their own semi-automatic system failed due to many flaws.
However his inventions did not stay limited to the automotive industry. During WWII, he invented the primary controls of the first Sikorsky helicopter, which lead to a mass production. He’s also the patent holder of many other inventions. At the age of 83, Oscar Banker died in 1979, Cleveland Ohio. His memoirs titled ‘Dreams and Wars of an American Inventor: An Immigrant’s Romance’ were published in 1983.
Sources: - Mouradian, George (1995). Armenian infotext (1st ed.). Southgate, Mich.: Bookshelf Publishers. ISBN 9780963450920. - Oscar Banker. WORLDLAB. Retrieved 27 February 2013. The creator of the first practical automatic transmission for cars and buses. - Stevens, Monica (August 1, 2010). “The Armenian Community in Michigan”. Examiner. Asatour Sarafian, inventor of the auto transmission. - Are Armenians the only victims of 1915? Agos. Retrieved from http://www.agos.com.tr/en/article/10417/are-armenians-the-only-victims-of-1915
Nouvart Dzeron, a Daughter of Armenia By Ralph Elmer Clarkson (1861 - 1942) 1912 Oil on canvas, The Art Institute of Chicago.
Ralph Clarkson, a prominent Chicago portrait painter, created his best known work, the painting Nouvart Dzeron, in 1912. The painting depicts a full-length portrait of a young woman dressed in traditional Armenian dress. Between 1912 and the 1920s, the title of the painting would change from Nouvart Dzeron to A Daughter of Armenia to eventually a combination of the two titles: Nouvart Dzeron, A Daughter of Armenia.
This changing title reveals how socio- political conceptions altered how people read the seemingly simple composition of a model posed against a blank background. This painting acts as a site of exploration for the changing conceptions of whiteness and commodification of ethnicity during a fifteen years span in the beginning of the twentieth century. Between 1912 and 1915, Clarkson used this painting to depict a generic idea of the Orient in order to bolster his own status as a fine artist. With the Armenian genocide of 1915, the painting’s subject moved into the realm of symbolism and ceased to be just a commodity of Clarkson’s to further his career.
Instead, the more valuable commodity became Dzeron’s specific ethnicity: Armenian. And finally, in the mid-1920s, the two titles were combined as public opinion turned against the Armenian cause and the painting’s memorializing effect lessened.
Source: Amy Lynn Weber, CIRCULATION, EXCHANGE AND RACE IN RALPH CLARKSON’S ‘NOUVART DZERON, A DAUGHTER OF ARMENIA’, 2011, University of Illinois.
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, Sergey Khachatryan won First Prize at the VIII International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 2000, becoming the youngest ever winner in the history of the competition. In 2005 he claimed First Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
At the Queen Elisabeth Competition, he won the 1708 “Huggins” Stradivarius violin (the price of a Stradivarius violin can go up to 45 million dollars) on loan to him from the Nippon Music Foundation for four years.
He appears regularly with many of the world’s top tier orchestras and conductors including most recent appearances in the US were with the Seattle Symphony (Ludovic Morlot) and National Symphony Orchestra (Washington) (Vasily Petrenko). He has also visited the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony as well as the Ravinia, Blossom and Mostly Mozart Festivals.
In recent seasons, Sergey has performed with the Bamberger Symphoniker (Herbert Blomstedt and Jonathan Nott), Munich Philharmonic (James Gaffigan), Swedish Radio Symphony (Valcuha), Mariinsky Orchestra (Valery Gergiev) and Orchestre de Paris (Andris Nelsons). He has also collaborated with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Melbourne Symphony.
Sergey’s discography on Naïve Classique includes the Sibelius and Khachaturian concerti with Sinfonia Varsovia and Emmanuel Krivine, both Shostakovich concerti with the Orchestre National de France and Kurt Masur, a recording of the Shostakovich and Franck sonatas for violin and piano and the complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by J.S. Bach. A disc of the Brahms sonatas for violin and piano was released in June 2013.
Sergey plays the 1740 ‘Ysaÿe’ Guarneri violin on kind loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Portrait of Ivan Aivazovsky by Alexey Tyranov, 1841.
One of the most fascinating and richly talented artists of the past two centuries was undoubtedly the Armenian-Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Ethnically an Armenian, he was born Hovhannes Aivazian inthe city of Feodosiya which was then a part of the Russian Empire.
Today Feodosiya is a port city in the Crimea. Although Aivazovsky was born in 1817 into a poor family, his father did an amazing job of providing him with a high quality education, teaching him to speak several languages fluently. The young Aivazovsky also showed extraordinary artistic potential from an early age, which proved to be his ticket to a future life of wealth and fame as one of Europe’s most brilliant artists.
Aivazovsky earned a seat in the Simferopol gymnasium No. 1. His most important training came in Russia’s St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. His raw talent was his payment for a first-class education. Ivan Aivazovsky is by far most known for painting magnificent seascapes, and is considered to be among the best in this category, perhaps “the best” all of history.
Fully half of all his life works, which were many, depict ocean scenes with ships, magnificent sunsets, cloudscapes, ships and waves. This talent earned him a huge amount of work from the Russian Navy. For them he painted numerous images of the sea and ships – a commission which would keep his income flowing and earn him many important connections with powerful people.
The Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik is the first extant piece of Georgian literature. Purported to have been written between 476 and 483, the earliest surviving manuscript dates from the 10th century.
The author is Iakob Tsurtaveli (Jacob of Tsurtavi), a contemporary and participant of the events described in this hagiographic novel. The novel describes the martyrdom of Saint Shushanik, an Armenian noblewoman, at the hand of her spouse, bidaxae (high prince) Varsken, who had renounced Christianity and embraced Zoroastrianism.
Shushanik, whose father was the sparapet (military leader) of the Christians in Armenia Saint Vartan Mamikonian, refused to follow him, so she died as a martyr after years of imprisonment and tortures.
Source: წამებაჲ წმიდისა შუშანიკისი დედოფლისაჲ.The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia by Tsurtaveli, Jacob, 1990.
Arto Galoussian, the Inventor of the Multi-Feed Satellite Dish
As a young man living in the Soviet Union in the 60’s Arto Galoussian was one of Yerevan Technical College’s brightest minds, excelling in the Radio Electro-communication field of study.
After leaving the Soviet Union, Galoussian ended up in the Kingdom of Iran during the late 60’s. Serving in the Shah’s army Galoussian was noticed for his physical and technical abilities and was utilized for radio communication projects for the Iranian military.
In the 70’s prior to the revolution, Galoussian immigrated to London, U.K. where he established his satellite communication business. It was in the early 90’s where Mr. Galoussian first finalized his patent of the multi-feed satellite dish. Being one of the first independent satellite contractors in the city of London, Mr. Galoussian worked on various satellite communication installation projects for the Russian Federation, Republic of Iran and United States Embassies within London. In addition,Galoussian was contracted by different worldly figureheads, from Saudi dignitaries and princes, Mr. Conrad Black on several occasions (Daily Telegraph owner), and in general was well acquainted with London’s elite.
Mr. Galoussian’s constraint for his patent was the funding which was needed in the early stages of his patent file to finalize inventorship. Although Mr. Galoussian was the first to establish the multi-feed satellite dish in 1993, he was unable to maintain the rights to his patent. It was several years later where an Italian company, IRTE Multisat and later Channel Master finalized the rights to Galoussian’s invention of the Multi-Feed Satellite Dish which till this day is used for satellite dish communications.
Source: Monarchy of Historical Armenia. (2015, April 22). Arto Galoussian - the Inventor of the Multi-Feed Satellite Dish clothing. [Facebook post]. Retrieved from Monarchy of Historical Armenia.
A 13th century architectural marvel, Saghmosavank Monastery.
Photo credit: Suren Manvelyan
The monastery of Saghmosavank is located in the village of Saghmosavan, located in the Ashtarak region of the Republic of Armenia. It is some 40 minutes northwest of Yerevan and lies atop precipitous gorge carved by the Kazakh River. It’s silhouette dominates the adjacent villages and rise sharp against the background of the mountains crowned by Mount Aragats.
Prince Vache Vachutyan
The monastery of Saghmosavank (Monastery of Psalms) was built in the 12th – 13th centuries by the order of Prince Vache Vachutyan. Thus the Surb Sion Church also known as the Church of Zion in Saghmosavank was erected in 1213 AD.
Type of building
The monastery can be classified as a cross-winged domed structure with two-floor annexes in all the corners of the building. It also holds a book repository and the St. Astvatsatsin church that were built in 1255 by the order of Prince Kurd Vachutyan.
Sources:
Architectural Ensembles of Armenia" O. Khalpakhchian, published in Moscow by Iskusstvo Publishers in 1980.
Land and Culture Organization. Saghmosavan.
Parsegian, V.L.. Armenian Architecture. Zug, Switzerland; IDC, 1980.
The duduk, the Armenian oboe, is a double-reed wind instrument characterized by a warm, soft, slightly nasal timbre. It belongs to the category of aerophones, which also includes the balaban played in Azerbaijan and Iran, the duduki common in Georgia and the ney in Turkey.
The origins
The soft wood of the apricot tree is the ideal material for the body of the instrument. The reed, called ghamish or yegheg, is a local plant growing alongside the Arax River. The roots of Armenian duduk music go back to the times of the Armenian king Tigran the Great (95-55 BC). It accompanies popular Armenian traditional songs and dances of the various regions and is played at events, such as weddings and funerals. Although there are also famous duduk soloists, among them Gevorg Dabaghyan and Vache Sharafyan, the duduk is usually played by two musicians. One player creates the musical environment for the lead melody by playing a continual drone held by circular breathing, while the other player develops complex melodies and improvisations.
Types of duduk
There are four major types of duduk, varying in length from 28 to 40 cm. This variety allows the sound of the duduk to express various moods depending on the content of the piece and the playing context. The 40-cm long duduk, for example, is regarded as most appropriate for love songs, whereas the smaller one usually accompanies dances. Today, duduk craftsmen continue to create and experiment with different forms of duduks. Many Armenians consider the duduk as the instrument that most eloquently expresses warmth, joy and their history. Over the last few decades, the popularity of Armenian duduk music has faded, in particular in the rural areas where it originated. The duduk instrument is played less and less in popular festivities, but more often as a staged performance by professionals, risking to threaten the music’s viability and traditional character.
In 2008, UNESCO inscribed the duduk on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Source:
Duduk and its music, Armenia. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Doodled this in my sketchbook and I liked it so I tried my hand at scanning and fixing it up in #procreate! It came out all right but I have a long way to go before I have any idea what I’m doing Pomegranates make me feel closer to my Armenian roots. Sometimes it feels like I’m being held hostage by my own lack of knowledge about my ancestors, like if I could just know what they looked like, what they ate, their favorite hobbies and if they liked to read or write or draw or garden like I do, if they loved their dogs or sang while they sewed, I could feel like less of an outsider. In the meantime, I wait for pomegranate season.⭐️ • • • #pomegranate #blog #watercolor #mixedmedia #illustration #womeninillustration #armenian #sketchbook #sketch #doodle (at Lebanon County, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CPwHsnmnl2l/?utm_medium=tumblr
so i found this about the original village (called ‘’iyidere’’ in rize province now, aspet in the past) of my moms family in the black sea region. they moved to a bigger town on the west (akçakoca) 4 generations ago and nobody they know lives in iyidere anymore. actually this book on the hemshin seems to be the only source i found about the history of that town. well, it seems to be unimportant and small.
Armenian dancer! The text reads Tamzara, it’s a traditional Armenian dance and I’m not sure this is a pose from it but here we go (gotta start collecting more research!)
