Armenian folk music accompanied love and marriage, work and play, with sagas for long winter nights and lullabies for rocking babies to sleep, over the wide geographical area which constituted the Armenian homeland. Many nostalgic songs have been sung as the Armenians left their homelands to find work or more dramatically, to survive.

The song and dance tradition remains with us today in present-day Armenia and in the diaspora, particularly for festivities.

In our workshop, we will do rhythmic play that will bring us to dance steps, and we will learn a few songs that will lead us to a folk story.

FREE with entrance to The Bees Knees.

Virginia Pattie Kerovpyan was born in the U.S.A. Born into a music-loving family, she continued her voice training in France where she specialized first in early European music and then Armenian folk song, troubadour music and liturgical chant and their modal system. She teaches song and dance to both adults and children. With her husband, Aram Kerovpyan, playing qanoun, she has recorded a new CD of lullabies which will be released in 2015.

Vahan Kerovpyan was born in Paris, now lives in Porto. He is musician, instrumentalist and composer. He leads workshops on rhythm and percussion, on which he performs since childhood. For several years he followed courses of dehol with Edmond Zartarian, and zarb with Madjid Khaladj. Moreover, he plays piano and sings in the Armenian choir Akn. He is a member of Kotchnak since 2003 and a musician of the Medz Bazar Collective, formed in Paris in 2012. He completed Armenian studies at the French National Institute of Eastern Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), also studied history at the Sorbonne University (Paris IV). He collaborates with various artists, composing music for performances as well as playing and singing live. Vahan participates in projects connected with preservation and development of the Armenian cultural heritage, working with various associations. Having been part of bilingual workshop Mgnig since his childhood, he has made the natural and pleasurable transmission and use of Armenian language as a priority within many of his projects. He has led workshops of language, theatre and music in various educational workshops and schools in France, including Mgnig (Paris), Club franco-arménien d’Antony, Tebrotzassère (Le Raincy), Saint-Mesrop school (Alfortville) and Markarian-Papazian school (Lyon).