News

Staff Report The GRAMMY Museum® Grant Program announced that the Armenian Studies Program was awarded a $5,000 grant for 2019-2020.  The Armenian Studies Program was one of 15 recipients in the United States to receive a grant to help facilitate a range of research on a variety of subjects, as well as support a number of archiving and preservation programs. ...

Staff Report Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Member of the Board of the Saroyan House Museum, was invited to introduce the film Lights!Camera!Saroyan! to the St. Apkar Church community on July 25, 2019. Following the showing of the movie, community members expressed their interest in the Saroyan House Museum in Fresno.

Staff Report This year marked the second Fresno Institute for Classical Armenian Translation Summer Institute (FICAT). Following upon the success of last year’s FICAT institute held at Fresno State, the directors, Drs. Sergio La Porta and Michael Pifer, decided to lead students to work at the Matenadaran (the Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts) in Yerevan, Armenia this summer. The FICAT ...

  David Safrazian Staff Writer “Each time we sing a song, though it has been sung before, it is new,” said Aram Kerovpyan. Armenian church music was nearly completely torn away from its homeland since the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Musicologists Aram and Virginia Kerovpyan visited Fresno State on Wednesday, May 1, to present a new film, Singing in Exile, ...

Armen Sahag Kouymjian  (1936 Tulcea, Romania – 2019 Pasadena)   Armen Kouymjian was the third and last child of Zabelle Calusdian Kouymjian and Toros Kouymjian. He was born an American citizen while his father, mother and older brother Dickran were visiting his father’s parents in Romania where they had fled after the Kemalist’s burning of Izmir (Smyrna) in 1922. His ...

Christine Pambukyan Staff Writer Combining musical energy and beautiful rhythms, the Cadence Ensemble performed in the Fresno State Concert Hall on Friday, April 26, as part of their celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Armenia’s noted composer Komitas Vardapet. The Cadence Ensemble performance was part of the World Music Series of the Keyboard Concert Series and was ...

Andrew Hagopian Editor From Tom Bradley International Airport in Los Angeles to Yerevan, Armenia, a group of 14 Armenian Studies Program students embarked on a two-week trip touring the various regions of modern day Armenia. The group was led by Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian and Prof. Sergio La Porta. The trip marked the ninth group of students since 1988 that ...

Seated, left, Clara Bousian Bedrosian, with Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian. Standing, left, Kenneth Bedrosian and Moon-Ja Yunouye. Mrs. Bedrosian is a 1958 graduate of Fresno State. Staff Report The Armenian Studies Program is pleased to announce that a $50,000 endowment has been established at Fresno State through a generous donation from Clara Bousian Bedrosian of Fowler, California.  The Clara Bousian ...

Staff Report The Armenian Studies Program announces the estab-lishment of the Simon D. and Haiganoosh Peterson Family Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund at Fresno State. The $25,000 endowment will support annual scholarships to be awarded to students enrolled in Armenian Studies Program courses at Fresno State. The Scholarship Fund was established in loving memory of Simon, Haiganoosh, Helen, Virginia, Paul, and ...

Andrew Hagopian Editor ASO 2019-2020 Executives, left to right: Matthew Mugrdechian, Vice-President; Suzanna Ekmekchyan, President; Andrew Hagopian, Public Affairs; Ariana Garabedian, Treasurer; and Dustin Vartanian, Secretary. Photo: Barlow Der Mugrdechian To kick off the Fall Semester, the Armenian Students Organization (ASO) at Fresno State held its first General Meeting of the semester on Tuesday, September 10, 2019. Five new student ...