Mayrig: A Mother’s Voice

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Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian) is an immersive, intimate program centered on the human voice that pulses with passion and celebration, resilience and rage. This 65-minute show created by Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher for cello, chamber ensemble, voice and electronics, weaves the voices of Ouzounian’s mother and grandmother with original arrangements of Armenian music from her family’s past home of Anatolia, songs and stories drawn from their post-genocide home of Lebanon, and the beloved music of Charles Aznavour. New and recent compositions by Beecher, Layale Chaker, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Ouzounian expand upon themes of generational transmission, rootedness, and uprootedness. Opening and closing the program is Marin Marais’s Les Voix Humaines, music from hundreds of years ago providing a window into the present. Through the specifics of family history, Mayrig creates an absorbing world of memory and association, leading the audience to an experience that is universal and shared, allowing space to consider the layers of meaning and history contained within music and the twisting paths that have led us all to this time and place.

In collaboration with Ravinia’s Steans Institute.

Runtime: 65 minutes

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Karen Ouzounian, Cello and Co-Creator
Lembit Beecher, Piano, Electronics, and Co-Creator
Maiya Papach, Viola
Ara Dinkjian, Oud
Maxwell Winningham, Double Bass
Charles Berberian, Visual Artist

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