Publicity Release: March 7, 2022
She Taught Me: Her Childhood Without Spring
An Eastman School of Music Musical Arts Capstone Project
Coming Soon - April 29th, 2022 at 6pm in Ciminelli Formal Lounge
*Content/Trigger Warning: genocide, abuse, violence, death, murder, torture*
"How can one forget these horrible pages registered with blood in the book of life? How can one forget the deadly scenes that have been etched with unbound pain and engraved deep in the soul? How can one forget our storm-stricken childhood that undulated in the sea of blood that gushed from the open wounds of our own race?" (Alice Torian, My Childhood Without Spring).
Between 1915 and 1921, nearly 1.5 million Armenians in the dismantling Ottoman Empire were intentionally displaced and slaughtered, and it would take more than a century for the United States to recognize these events as genocide. Among the tortured scapegoats was my late great-grandmother, Alice Torian, who survived the genocide as a child. As an undergraduate student at the Eastman School of Music, I have created an MUA Honor Project that tells the story of my great-grandmother’s survival of the Armenian Genocide titled “My Childhood without Spring” based on her unpublished 1975 memoir recalling the horrors of the calamity. This evening will take the form of a multimedia lecture-recital using research funded by the Institute for Music Leadership and the Susan B. Anthony Institute. My great-grandmother's dream was for her story to be told. Because of this, I have composed five songs using the text of Alice’s unpublished memoir to be performed in raising awareness of the past and current struggles of Armenian people – especially Armenian women.
This evening will not be about me, rather it will be an evening to honor her. Please prepare your heart and join me in a shared time of learning and growth, so that we may deny denial and embrace justice.