Mal Barsamian & Datev Gevorkian
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One of today’s leading musicians and culture bearer for Armenian music is oud player Mal Barsamian. A virtuoso on many instruments, including clarinet, dumbeg, and classical guitar, he has been a sought-after musician in Armenian, Balkan, and Greek communities for nearly 40 years. In recent years, he has been mentoring a rising talent, oudist Datev Gevorkian, and this duo will share the stage at the Lowell Folk Festival this year.
For most of the last millennium, Armenia—situated in western Asia, near Turkey, Georgia, and Iran—has been under political domination by others, including the Ottoman and the Soviet Union. Facing political and social repression—and the 1915 expulsion and genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey—many Armenians fled their homeland, creating a diasporic community in Europe, Middle East, and the Americas. Although Armenia is now an independent country, traditional Armenian culture abroad has faced a recent decline, fueled by both a detachment by diasporic communities from pre-genocide Armenia and the major influence of the societies in which they reside. However, it lives on through musicians, artists, and other carriers of Armenian culture like Mal Barsamian and Datev Gevorkian.
“What we’re trying to do is preserve the music of our parents and grandparents,” reflects Barsamian. A third-generation oud player, his first performance was accompanying his father on dumbeg at the age of four at a community picnic. From such auspicious beginnings, Mal has built a long resume of performance and teaching gigs—including Tufts University, Boston College, and New England Conservatory of Music—cementing his place as a prominent figure in Armenian and Middle Eastern music.
Gevorkian too comes from a musical family, though didn’t pick up the oud until the age of 10 when his grandfather gave him a book about Armenian and Middle Eastern instruments. His first lesson was with John Berberian, another prominent oud player in the Boston-area Armenian community, before becoming one of Barsamian’s students. “It is important for me to play this music in order to continue on the culture and eventually pass it down to the next generation,” Datev says, with an eye to the future.
