Saturday, September 29, 2012

Vanessa Kachadurian, Armenia's Chest Team Worldwide Winners- Returns to hero welcome

PanARMENIAN.Net - The head coach of Armenian chess team Arshak Petrosyan commented on Armenia’s third victory in World Chess Olympiad. “We’ve got a very friendly team. When people say: “One for all and all for one!” – it could be about us. The preparation for the next round is where you can see the role of a real team leader, Levon Aronian, who’s ready to share his vast knowledge with all the players. I don’t think that’s possible in all of the other teams. Secondly, a team which systematically wins ends up with a winning spirit. We almost always think we’ve got a chance, regardless of how a tournament’s going. A clear example of that is the European Championship last year, in which we shared 3rd-4th place and didn’t even claim medals. After losing in the second round we won the next 5 matches as if nothing had happened, and before the final round we were even in first place. What does team spirit mean? Here in Istanbul we lost to the Chinese team, and pretty quickly. It seemed as though we didn’t have any chance at all as the Russians could win all their remaining matches. However, we didn’t hold a post-mortem, and after a few introductory words we immediately split into groups and got down to preparing for the next encounter. We began to discuss who would help who with what – an absolutely working atmosphere. Perhaps those are the main components of success, although I’d once again emphasise our family atmosphere. I could characterise each player in the team individually, starting with Aronian – he's a true team leader. His willingness to support anyone at any moment with opening preparation is worth a lot, while at the same time he played brilliantly himself, taking first place on the first board. Sergei Movsesian, as you can see, is the only person in our team who limited himself to 50% of the points, but at the same time he won two crucial games against Grischuk and Almasi, which ensured we took the title. Therefore he made a very big contribution to the victory. In general, after he transferred to the team last year it’s become much more compact. We’ve got 4 powerful boards, which was also proven at the World Championship in Ningbo. Vladimir Akopian, who took 2nd place on his board, played wonderfully, winning 5 games and drawing 5. So we had the strongest line-up in the whole history of the team. Tigran also played well, scoring 2.5 points in the first three rounds, though after that we played exclusively with the main line-up,” whychess.com quoted the head coach as saying. http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/124785/Armenian_chess_team_coach_weve_got_a_very_friendly_team

Vanessa Kachadurian Armenian spiritual Music- Komitas



Soghomon Gevorgi Soghomonyan (Սողոմոն Գևորգի Սողոմոնյան), commonly known as Komitas Vardapet (Կոմիտաս Վարդապետ, by Western Armenian transliteration also Gomidas Vartabed) or simply Komitas (Gomidas) (born on September 26 or October 8a, 1869, in Kütahya, Ottoman Empire; died on October 22, 1935, in Paris, France) was an Armenian priest, composer, choir leader, singer, music ethnologist, music pedagogue and musicologist. Many regard him as the founder of modern Armenian classical music.
Komitas lost his mind after witnessing the 1915 Armenian Genocide and is considered a martyr of the genocide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komitas_Vardapet
·         On Monday, October 1, 2012 you are invited to a presentation on the Life and Works of Komitas Vartabed on a DVD comprising more than 450 photographs, 100 video clips and 550 musical performances from various artists. Compiled and presented by Garegin Chugaszyan at the UC Center in Fresno.

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Yes we are invited to a presentation on the Life and Works of the GREAT Komitas Vartabed.  You simply do not talk about Armenian Music without mentioning Komitas.

Vanessa Kachadurian My Uncle Rafael (Movie Trailer) 2012



We saw this movie on opening weekend it is a great movie full of old traditional Armenian wisdom and fun.  Uncle Rafael is selected to be in a reality show to save a family, the cast of Armenian actors plots to save them and along the way learns more about their family dynamics.  It is good clean fun, and appropriate for children.  If you liked "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" you will LOVE My Uncle Rafael.

Unfortunately there is only limited showings and mostly on the West Coast, hopefully the early success of the movie will mean wider distribution. 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Vanessa Kachadurian, Armenian Artist Eddie Mekka



Eddie Mekka aka Mekjian is now back to his first love Broadway, now staring in "Fiddler on the Roof"
He was one of the many TV stars that came to our schools "Fabulous 50's" fundraiser.  Others were: Kathy Garver, Stan Livingston, Dawn Wells, Tony Dow and more.  The shows they represented were: Make Room for Daddy, Laverne and Shirley, My 3 Sons, Gilligans Island, and more.  As a founding member of the Lively Arts Foundation and promoter of the arts and education.  I mentioned to Eddie he has some good moves.  Here is a trip down memory lane.