The Armenian Studies Program Spring 2021 Lecture Series presents “'The Water Has Found Its Crack': Finding Armenia Through Music," by Dr. Joseph Bohigian.

Date: Friday, Feb. 19
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Zoom
Register: bit.ly/armenianstudiesbohigian

Displacement and dispersion loom large in the Armenian collective memory, as seen through its music and the work of the composer and musicologist Komitas. A longing to reclaim elements of lost culture pervades the Armenian diaspora, where Home is reconstituted in exile. In response to the notion of a reclaiming of culture, Joseph Bohigian moved to Armenia to compose a piece titled "The Water Has Found its Crack," tracing displacement, dispersion, and reclamation in Armenian music in order to explore the ways these three elements affect the negotiation of internal and external identity boundaries in diaspora. In the piece, Bohigian reflects on the centrality of displacement in Armenian culture in a quasi-folk song. The story of an exiled people longing to be reunited — the story of the water finding its crack.

Fresno State alum Dr. Joseph Bohigian is a composer and performer whose cross-cultural experience as an Armenian-American is a defining message in his music. His work explores the expression of exile, cultural reunification, and identity maintenance in diaspora. Bohigian’s works have been heard at the Oregon Bach Festival, June in Buffalo, Walt Disney Concert Hall, New Music on the Point Festival, TENOR Conference (Melbourne), and the Aram Khachaturian Museum Hall.

Organized by the Armenian Studies Program. Co-sponsored by the Department of Music.