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EMMY AWARD WINNING COMPOSER DENISE GENTILINI TO STAGE MUSICAL ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
17:58, 25 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
A three time Emmy award winning composer Denise Gentilini, along with
singer, songwriter Lisa Nemzo, has created I Am Alive, a dramatic
musical that spans a nearly 75 year love story of her grandparents,
celebrating the strength and resilience of the Armenian people.
Denise Gentilini is the granddaughter of Kourken and Malvine Handjian,
"My grandfather, Kourken, became an orphan at the age of eight. His
father was killed when the Armenian genocide started in central Turkey,
in 1915, where he lived with his family. Along with his surviving
family, he was sent on what would become the death march of men, women
and children across the Syrian desert to concentration camps. But a
Turkish man had pity on this little boy. He rescued him and placed
him in an orphanage. He never saw his family again. My grandmother
Malvine also lived in Turkey. Her father was poisoned in the genocide
and because she had too many siblings for her mother to handle, she
was given away to another family to be raised by them. As surviving
Armenians were deported from Turkey, both Kourken and Malvine wound up
in a refugee camp in Greece where they found each other. When she was
14 and he was 19 they married, and spent nearly 75 years together,"
Denise Gentilini said, speaking to Fox 31 Denver.
Gentilini says while she's known her history for decades, she chose
this year to share what her family went through. "In April it will
be the 100th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, and I wanted
to tell the story in a different way. So along with internationally
celebrated singer songwriter Lisa Nemzo, we created I Am Alive,
a dramatic musical that spans a nearly 75 year love story of my
grandparents, celebrating the strength and resilience of the Armenian
people. There have been plays and movies and marches, but I've never
heard a musical. I believe music is a universal language, so even
those who don't know about this time in history might be interested
because the music makes it accessible."
Gentilini, an Emmy award winning composer, says I Am Alive, directed
by Christy Montour-Larson, is a continuation of the work she's been
doing in music for years. "As part of the "We Are Voices" project I've
composed music for Children's Hospital on Autism, for the Iliff School
of Theology for their Courage Award for Judy Shephard and for genocide
awareness. I grew up with my grandparents nearby and always knew what
they lived through and handed down to us was amazing. It made me want
to be an activist and do something: to be the voice for the voiceless."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/02/25/emmy-award-winning-composer-denise-gentilini-to-stage-musical-on-armenian-genocide/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1164386024/i-am-alive-an-armenian-genocide-love-story-told-in?ref=nav_search
17:58, 25 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
A three time Emmy award winning composer Denise Gentilini, along with
singer, songwriter Lisa Nemzo, has created I Am Alive, a dramatic
musical that spans a nearly 75 year love story of her grandparents,
celebrating the strength and resilience of the Armenian people.
Denise Gentilini is the granddaughter of Kourken and Malvine Handjian,
"My grandfather, Kourken, became an orphan at the age of eight. His
father was killed when the Armenian genocide started in central Turkey,
in 1915, where he lived with his family. Along with his surviving
family, he was sent on what would become the death march of men, women
and children across the Syrian desert to concentration camps. But a
Turkish man had pity on this little boy. He rescued him and placed
him in an orphanage. He never saw his family again. My grandmother
Malvine also lived in Turkey. Her father was poisoned in the genocide
and because she had too many siblings for her mother to handle, she
was given away to another family to be raised by them. As surviving
Armenians were deported from Turkey, both Kourken and Malvine wound up
in a refugee camp in Greece where they found each other. When she was
14 and he was 19 they married, and spent nearly 75 years together,"
Denise Gentilini said, speaking to Fox 31 Denver.
Gentilini says while she's known her history for decades, she chose
this year to share what her family went through. "In April it will
be the 100th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, and I wanted
to tell the story in a different way. So along with internationally
celebrated singer songwriter Lisa Nemzo, we created I Am Alive,
a dramatic musical that spans a nearly 75 year love story of my
grandparents, celebrating the strength and resilience of the Armenian
people. There have been plays and movies and marches, but I've never
heard a musical. I believe music is a universal language, so even
those who don't know about this time in history might be interested
because the music makes it accessible."
Gentilini, an Emmy award winning composer, says I Am Alive, directed
by Christy Montour-Larson, is a continuation of the work she's been
doing in music for years. "As part of the "We Are Voices" project I've
composed music for Children's Hospital on Autism, for the Iliff School
of Theology for their Courage Award for Judy Shephard and for genocide
awareness. I grew up with my grandparents nearby and always knew what
they lived through and handed down to us was amazing. It made me want
to be an activist and do something: to be the voice for the voiceless."
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/02/25/emmy-award-winning-composer-denise-gentilini-to-stage-musical-on-armenian-genocide/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1164386024/i-am-alive-an-armenian-genocide-love-story-told-in?ref=nav_search