MUSICAL ARMENIA CONCERT ENTHRALLS AUDIENCE AT CARNEGIE HALL

By Florence Avakian 

Sunday, March 15 was an unusual day for a concert. Many streets near New York’s Carnegie Hall were closed due to the Half Marathon. Carnegie’s Weill Hall, however, was filled as the 41st annual Musical Armenia concert, featuring a brother and sister professional musical team, took center stage at 2 pm, and the crowd was warmly welcomed by Musical Armenia Committee member Levon Tatevossian.  

The carefully planned program began with extraordinarily gifted 23-year-old Seiran Tozlian, playing Komitas Vartabed’s poetic dance “Yerangi,” an ancient rhythmic folk melody melted with contemporary segments, which has garnered great international interest.  

The young Seiran confidently walked on stage, and started playing, never looking at the keys, almost in a reverie. The exhilarating music had melted into his body.  

This powerful introduction was followed by his 20-year-old sister, violinist Angelina Tozlyan, who offered Edward Elgar’s “Violin Sonata in E Minor,” a three-movement composition combining a bold opening, an expressive quiet romance, and a closing relaxing movement, expertly offered by the young professional violinist. Talented pianist Daria Podorozhnova provided a dynamic partner.  

The “Song Poem” by Aram Khachaturian was described in the program booklet by acclaimed concert pianist Sahan Arzruni as displaying exuberant emotion and rhythmic freedom in honor of Armenian troubadours. Arzruni wrote that the composition may be regarded as a “Gusan-like melody transplanted onto the concert stage.” It was rendered with deep intensity by the duo of performers. 

Maurice Ravel’s “Tzigane,” a “last essay in the Hungarian style” for violin and piano, combined a solo violin with a dazzling pizzicato that had the audience responding with rapture.  

Following intermission, Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Piano Sonata in C Major” took center stage as Seiran Tozlian mastered the eminent composer’s “eloquence through improvisation and fantasy illusion.” The last movement displayed Haydn’s “humor and harmonic elegance,” a truly profound satisfying composition that remained with the listeners for a long time.  

Seiran continued his unique keyboard mastery with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor,” a three-movement piece of dramatic power by a genius of heart stirring themes. 

The concert concluded with Seiran and Angelina proudly offering Edgar Hovhanissyan’s “Dance of Vagharshapat,” an atmospheric piece drawn from an Armenian folk dance. The gently melodic lines are both playful and lyrical. Both the pianist and violinist gave an unforgettable presentation, which brought the crowd to their feet as Levon Tatevossian presented bouquets of beautiful flowers to the musicians.  

Special guests attending were Armenian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Paruyr Hovhannisyan and concert pianist Sahan Arzruni.  

Following the concert, His Eminence Archbishop Anoushavan, Prelate, hosted a special reception in honor of the performers at the Eastern Prelacy. Archbishop Anoushavan expressed his great appreciation for the concert and very graciously invited Sahan Arzuni to speak. Arzruni congratulated the two extraordinary performers, as well as the excellent planning of the program. 

Violinist Angelina Tozlyan, a prize winner of several international competitions, is only 20 years old. She is currently a student at the Manhattan School of Music under the direction of Chloe Kiffer. Her violin was made for her by luthier Hrachya Galstyan in Italy.  

Twenty-three-year-old pianist and composer Seiran Tozlian, also a student at the Manhattan School of Music, has been a prize-winner at many competitions. He has also performed at the Juilliard School and at Merkin Hall. During the 2026 season, he will perform with the orchestra at the Manhattan School of Music where he studied under the direction of Alexandre Moutouzkine. 

“It is the dream of every musician to play in Carnegie Hall,” Seiran Tozlian told this writer. “My dream is to find something new so all people can understand the emotion.” He said his first instrument at age five was the guitar, but he felt it was not an instrument that he could go far with, so piano became his instrument. 

Angelina Tozlyan, who had just turned 20, said she wanted “to live in music, teach, perform, and share music with people—I want to show people that music is my language, my being.” She considers her instrument inseparable from her: “I feel that the violin is part of my body.”  

The members of the Musical Armenia committee included Saro Atam, Julie Kedersha, Sophie Khachatryan, Annita Nerses, Varsenne Sarkissian, and Levon Tatevossian. Art direction and design was by Gregory Dosttur. The concert was in remembrance of Prelacy Ladies Guild longtime member Seda Andrikian.  

The Musical Armenia Concert series began on March 14, 1982, inaugurated by Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian. It has been followed every year since then, under the devotion and hard work of Archbishop Anoushavan. “I hope all attendees found this concert to be an exhilarating tour de force as much as I did,” he said.