Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
Photo: John Alden
Staff Report
Oud master Richard Hagopian was one of five musicians inducted into the Valley Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater on Wednesday, September 21. The 2022 class of inductees included Hagopian, Gene Bluestein, The Fresno Musical Club, Alan and Faye Harkins, and Ray Camacho.
Biographical and historical notes were presented about each inductee followed by the performance of musical pieces representing each musical tradition. Prof. Barlow Der Mugrdechian of the Armenian Studies Program at Fresno State introduced Hagopian. Richard Hagopian’s son Armen and grandchildren Phillip and Andrew then provided musical entertainment with two songs: Parov Yegar Siroon Yar (Welcome, My Sweet Love), composed by Udi Boghos Kirechjian, and Erzurumi Shoror (Circle Cradle Dance of Erzurum).
Richard Avedis Hagopian was born to Armenian parents in Fowler, California and began his musical journey at an early age, beginning to study the violin at age nine and the clarinet a year later. At 11, he took up the oud, the instrument through which Hagopian would achieve international recognition.
Hagopian studied the oud with the internationally renowned Armenian artist Kanuni Garbis Bakirgian and also learned to play the clarinet, the dumbeg, and the kanoun. He also mastered the accompanying musical theory, notation techniques, and both the classical and folk repertoires.
In 1989 Hagopian was chosen as a NEA National Heritage Fellow and in 1990 he was honored with a “Meet the Composer Grant” from the New York State Music Council of the Arts. He has instructed master classes at both the Manhattan School of Music and California State University, Fresno, where he served as “Artist in Residence.” The New York Times has referred to him as “one of America’s most accomplished folk musicians.”
Through his many decades of performances in Armenian communities, Hagopian was widely acclaimed as an artist and technician. He was given the title “Oudi” in 1969 by the internationally famous virtuoso Oudi Hrant, a blind master, the highest honor an oudist can receive.
The late Gene Bluestein, a retired Fresno State professor, brought many well-known folk musicians to perform concerts for the students and to the Fresno community-at-large, including luminaries Pete Seeger, Doc Watson, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. He believed music and art were important modes of expression for everyone, not just the most talented in our society.
The Fresno Music Club was established in 1905 by a group of women who saw the need for classical music concerts in Fresno long before colleges, symphonies, or other cultural arts existed here. These women, all musicians, formed a volunteer group that from 1908 through 1980 sponsored and presented a series of concerts through two world wars, the influenza epidemic and the depression.
Allen Harkins was a Madera High School teacher, pianist, composer and arranger of Big Band music. Faye Harkins was a designer, seamstress, and choreographer known for teaching majorettes how to do their routines on her front lawn. Together they became known as the “Harkins Music Machine,” turning out award-winning bands and stunning visual performances.
Ray Camacho was the leader of “Ray Camacho and the Teardrops,” a trumpeter, and a multi-instrumentalist whose musical diversity is legendary. Formed in 1960, his band melded rock, soul, Mexican regional music, cumbias, covers, and originals.
They began playing high school dances and regional fairs, establishing a reputation for energetic live performances. During their multi-decade existence, “Ray Camacho and The Teardrops” recorded 58 LPs/CDs and 75 singles with three gold records, and performed for the 1989 Presidential Inauguration of George Bush.
The Valley Music Hall of Fame event was held in collaboration with Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater and the Community Media Access Collaborative (CMAC) and was hosted by Dan Pessano and Elizabeth Stoeckel.
The Valley Music Hall of Fame Board is composed of Chair, Don Priest; Vice-Chair, Don Fischer; Treasurer, Ray Settle; Secretary Debi Ruud; and Board members John Alden, Janice Fleming, Beverly Green, and Fred Martinez.
The mission of the Valley Music Hall of Fame is to seek out those exceptional musicians, writers, producers, promoters, and educators, both past and present, who have contributed to the musical cornucopia and to honor them with induction into the Valley Music Hall of Fame. More information on the Valley Music Hall of Fame can be found at https://valleymusichalloffame.org/.