The music of guitarist and composer Aram Bajakian music has been called “a masterpiece” (fRoots, July 2017), “shape-shifting” (FreeJazzCollective, January 2017), and “sometimes delicate, sometimes punishing” (Chicago Reader, January 2018). As a guitarist, “the virtuosic jack of all trades” (Village Voice, May 2015) has toured extensively with Lou Reed, Diana Krall, Madeleine Peyroux, and John Zorn, performing at many of the world’s greatest venues, including Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, the Acropolis, L’Olympia, as well as the Montreaux, Newport, Monterey and Antibes jazz festivals, among others. From 2018-2021 Bajakian served as the New Music Curator at Western Front in Vancouver, one of Canada’s leading artist-run centers for contemporary art and new music.

The Armenian Genocide of 1915 killed over 1 million Armenians and removed almost all traces of Armenian peoples from what is now Central and Eastern Turkey. Genocide survivors dispersed to enclaves around the world and their descendants comprise the bulk of the current diaspora. Because of the complicated histories of forced deportation and genocide, questions surrounding identity (what does it mean to be Armenian?) and how and if those questions are expressed through one’s music make for a highly volatile terrain, one which has received little attention by scholars. Utilizing a three-pronged methodological approach that combines historical musicology, ethnography (with community-based/amateur and professional musicians), and public-facing, dialogue-provoking creative works, my research will show how music throughout the Armenian diaspora is shaped by the influence of surrounding political, cultural and societal pressures. By viewing post-genocide communities through the lens of political theorist Iris Marion Young’s “Five Faces of Oppression” (exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence) this research will illustrate how each Armenian community (whether in Lebanon, New York, Los Angeles or Yerevan) evolved in culturally and politically distinct environs. Out of necessity, Armenians responded to these oppressions in various ways, expressed through the sounds that Armenian musicians produced. The influence of these historical responses is still reflected in the variegated sonic palettes of contemporary Armenian artists.