BIRTH OF ZAREH KHRAKHOUNI

Zareh Khrakhouni (pen name of Arto Jumbushian) was born in Constantinople on October 16, 1926. After starting his education at Kapamajian School, in 1935 he continued his studies at the Mekhitarian Secondary College of the Viennese Mekhitarists, from which he graduated in 1945. He studied philosophy, law, and literature at Istanbul University, graduating in 1951. He followed a course in literature and art history in Paris.

He published his first poem in 1948. From 1952-1958, he taught philosophy, psychology, and Armenian language at Esayan School in Constantinople. He also taught at the Getronagan Lyceum, where he was also the vice principal.

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DEATH OF ARMAN KOTIKIAN

Arman Kotikian, a poet and translator, was mainly known as an actor with a half-century on Armenian stages.

He was born Arakel Kotikian in Trabzon (Trebisonda) on September 27, 1896. After elementary studies in the nearby village of Elevi, where his family lived, he moved to Trabzon to live with his brother and continued his studies at the local Armenian school. Only him, his brother and sister, out of their huge family, survived the Armenian Genocide.

After the occupation of Trabzon by Russian forces in 1916, Arman Kotikian was devoted to the gathering of orphans, participated in the creation of an orphanage-school in the building of the Girls’ School in Trabzon,…

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DEATH OF SARKIS DARCHINIAN

There are lesser-known names who do the hard work of documentation to construct the building of history. Sargis Darchinian took that role for the Armenian community of Georgia.

Sargis Darchinian was born on September 5, 1947, in Tbilisi (Georgia). He graduated from school in 1966 and, simultaneously, from sculpture and modeling at technical school. In 1967 he started working at the jewelry factory as designer and engraver.

He started photography during his adolescence, and gradually went into documentary photography, contributing to various Georgian publications. In the early 1970s, he met Alexander Arutiunov, a well-known Armenian photographer of Tbilisi, and, following his advice, focused on photography of architectural and historical type, as well as օf “urban types.”

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DEATH OF ARMENAG SHAHMOURADIAN

Armenag Shahmouradian had huge success in Paris as opera singer, but he became more famous as one of the most conspicuous representatives of the musical school founded by Gomidas Vartabed.

He was born on April 7, 1878, in Mush (Western Armenia). His singing talents as a member of the church choir, which he joined at the age of eight, attracted the attention of Bishop Nerses Kharakhanian. The bishop took him under his wing and sent him to the Seminary of the monastery of St. Garabed in Mush to get his education, but the narrow confines of the monastery were not suited for the young boy, who returned home quite soon.

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BIRTH OF ARCHBISHOP KHOREN KALFAYAN

Archbishop Khoren Kalfayan, also know by the literary surname of Nar Bey, was a well-known literary and public figure in the second half of the nineteenth century.

He was born in Constantinople on September 6, 1831. Along with his brother Ambrosius Kalfayan, he was sent to the convent of St. Lazarus of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Venice, where he received his education.

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BIRTH OF TATEVIK SAZANDARIAN

Tatevik Sazandarian was an operatic mezzo–soprano who became a well-known soloist at the Yerevan Opera Theater and then a longtime teacher at the Komitas Conservatory.

She was born in Khndzoresk, in Siunik, on August 20, 1916. She grew up in Baku, where she sang as a soloist in the school choir from the age of ten. She moved to Moscow in 1932 and sang in several amateur performances. She began performing in concerts in 1933 and studied at the musical and drama studios of the Armenian Cultural House of Moscow…

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DEATH OF BELLA (TARPINIAN) DARBINYAN

Between the 1960s and 1980s, Bella Darbinian was at her peak as one of the most well-known singers of Armenia, with her fame firmly established in the Diaspora.

Bella Darbinian was born on February 10, 1936, in Kirovakan (nowadays Vanadzor). Her actual last name was Kuznetsova (her father was Russian and her mother Armenian). When she started her musical career, she considered more appropriate to use an Armenian name and used the straightforward translation of her surname (Russian kuznets = Armenian darbin-tarpin “blacksmith”).

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BIRTH OF MANOUG PARIKIAN

Manoug Parikian was an accomplished British Armenian violinist and violin teacher of international fame.

Parikian was born on September 15, 1920, in Mersin (Cilicia), to parents from Adana. He lived in Cyprus, where he took his first violin lessons from his paternal uncle Vahan Bedelian, a well-known musician and teacher. He moved to London in 1936, where he studied with Louis Pecsaki at the Trinity College of Music (1936-1939).

He made his debut as a concerto soloist in 1947 in Liverpool and in 1949 at the Royal Albert Hall, London. He was concert master of several orchestras: the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (1947-1948), London Philharmonia Orchestra (1949-1957), The English Opera Group Orchestra (1949-1951),

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DEATH OF CYRUS HAMLIN

Cyrus Hamlin was a prominent American Congregational missionary and co-founder of Robert College in Constantinople.

Hamlin was born in Waterford, Maine, on January 8, 1811. He belonged to a prominent nineteenth-century family in the state. At sixteen, he entered an apprenticeship as a silversmith and jeweler in Portland, Maine, before deciding to enter the ministry. He first attended Bridgton Academy before heading to college. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1834 and from Bangor Theological Seminary in 1837.

Hamlin married Henrietta Jackson in 1838 and they left the United States in the same year for the Ottoman Empire as a missionary under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He helped found Bebek Seminary in 1840 as part of his outreach to Armenians and directed it until 1860.

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BIRTH OF PAUL GARABEDIAN

Paul Garabedian was an Armenian American mathematician whose computer computations helped lead to fuel–efficient wings for modern jetliners.

He was born in Cincinnati on August 2, 1927. He was home-schooled by his parents, who both held Harvard graduate degrees. Harvard rejected him when he applied for college in 1943, and he attended Brown University instead. After graduation (1946), he went to Harvard for his master’s (1947) and doctoral studies and completed his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1948 at the age of 21.

After working for seven years at the University of California, Berkeley (1949-1956), and three years at Stanford University (1956-1959), Garabedian joined New York University and remained there for the next 51 years in the division of computational fluid dynamics of the university’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, becoming its director in 1978. He supervised 27 dissertations from 1953 to 1997. He married and had two daughters.

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