Kurken M. Alemshah

Born: May 22,1907, Bardizag, Ottoman Empire
Dies: December 14, 1947, Detroit, Michigan
Active years recording: 1947
Label Association: Colibri 

In this installment of the Sound Archive we turn our attention to a set of recordings made in Paris, France by the acclaimed Armenian composer and conductor Kurken Alemshah. As a contemporary of modern Armenian composers such as Parsegh Ganatchian and Mihran Toumajan, the work of Alemshah follows in the Eastern Armenian musical tradition, characterized by interpretations of Armenian folk melodies rendered through the compositional techniques of Western classical music. The recordings presented here were made in late 1947, just prior to Alemshah’s sudden passing. They show his work at the height of its development and feature the powerful voice of the soprano Asdghig Arakelian.

Kurken Alemshah was born on May 22,1907 in Bardizag, a district of Izmit built at the foot of the St. Minas Mountain. At the age eight his parents sent him to Venice, Italy to escape the Genocide. There the young Alemshah was able to study at the Murad-Rafaelian Armenian College. Already showing musical promise at the age of sixteen, he went on to study music at the Milan Conservatory. There he developed his skills as a composer of classical European music, while merging this training with his study of and appreciation for traditional Armenian folk music. Like other artists working in this idiom Alemshah’s work was grounded in and often included arrangements of works by Sayat Nova and Gomidas Vartabed as well as such as Ashoug Sheram. In fact the first song presented here, Na Mi Naz Ouni, is an arrangement of a song attributed to Ashough Sheram, while the tunes Erangui and Mi Khosk Ounim are attributed to Gomidas and Sayat Nova respectively. The last composition, Nazère, is an original composition by Alemshah.

By the time these recordings were made in 1947 Alemshah had a decades-long career working as a teacher, composer, and choral director, primarily between Paris and Venice. The recordings here were published on two four-disc sets of 78rpm records on the Colibri record label and were manufactured in Paris, France. The albums received wide distribution in the United States with advertisements in the Armenian papers at the time of its release, promoting their availability at eight record stores on the East Coast from Philadelphia up to Detroit. Both albums present a selection of orchestral works as well as piano and soprano duets, featuring the accomplished singer Asdghig Arakelian with Kurken Alemshah on piano. Arakelian was a soprano working in Paris, whose career began upon graduation from college in 1920; she was working and touring as late as 1962.

Sadly Alemshah’s career was cut short just around the time of the album's release. In the fall of 1947 Alemshah came to the United States for an extended tour of the East Coast. During that trip he presented works at venues as prestigious as New York Town Hall, presenting his Armenian orchestral and choral works. But on December 14th Alemshah suffered a heart attack and passed away, one day prior to his scheduled appearance in Detroit. Despite his untimely passing Alemshah made a profound impact on the character of modern Armenian classical music. Just two years after his passing his music would again fill the air of New York's Town Hall in a concert of the Armenian National Chorus under the direction of Mihran Toumajan. His compositions were presented along with the work of his idols Gomitas and Sayat Nova, as well as his contemporaries Alan Hovhaness and Toumajan himself. 

A special thanks to the SJS Charitable Trust for their generous support of our work to digitize and share our collection of 78 rpm records.