Reuben Hagop Sarkisian
Born: Dec. 24, 1891 Kharpert (Mamuret-el-Aziz) | Died: June 12, 1981 Fresno, CA

Vart (Rose) (neé Ohannessian) Sarkisian
Born: Sept. 1, 1903 Kharpert (Mamuret-el-Aziz) | Died: May 21, 1976 Los Angeles, CA

Label Association: Sarkisian Records 1947-1950s

Both Reuben Sarkisian and his wife Vart were born in Kharpert. Reuben--a future violinist, composer, and lyricist--was raised in the Mezre area of Kharpert, where he attended the French Catholic school. His father, Hagop, a talented violinist, encouraged Reuben to study music. In 1911, seventeen-year-old Reuben immigrated to the United States to join his sister Elizabeth, who was married and living in Boston. Not long after, he would enlist in the Air Corps during World War I. Due to his fluency in French from his education in Kharpert, Reuben was sent to train as an aerial photographer under French instructors in New York. During a fire at the air base, Reuben suffered serious back injuries.

In 1920, Vart immigrated to the United States, where she met Reuben through his sister, Elizabeth. The Sarkisian family settled in Haverhill, MA, and became active members of Boston's Armenian music community. Reuben primarily played as a violinist for dances, while Vart gained a reputation for her voice and her exceptional repertoire of Armenian songs. Reuben began collaborating and performing with vocalist and percussionist Khachadour Apkarian, who resided in Lawrence, MA.

Hoping to bring relief to the back injuries he sustained during the war, the Sarkisians were recommended to move to Los Angeles. The couple found instant musical success in Central and Southern California. Encouraged by the public, Vart Sarkisian negotiated an agreement in 1947 with a record store owner in Hollywood who agreed to publish their music as long as the Sarkisian’s were responsible for the sales. According to Reuben, they produced 2,000 records for each release. Between 1947-1952 the Sarkisian record label would release 30 songs. Every composition is dance-oriented and twenty-one of the songs feature Vart, who was the only vocalist to record with the group. The orchestra features a varied roster of musicians, including some who knew the Sarkisians from their time in Boston along with younger and California-based artists. John Berberian was the only oudist for the band. In the early sessions, Reuben also enlisted Bagdasar Harry Parigian on banjo and kanoun player, Theo Cappas, a Greek musician in Los Angeles, while the dumbeg responsibilities were left to Joe Elby (a well-known Assyrian percussionist who was born in Kharpert in 1915) and a teenager who would eventually be considered the finest dumbeg player in California, Peter Gamoian. The later sessions would again record Berberian on the oud, Reuben’s early bandmate Khatchadour Apkarian,  and feature the distinguished Kanouni Garbis Barkirjian, who was also influential by introducing Greek and Turkish songs for Reuben to adapt to Armenian.

While Reuben composed and arranged all of the music he also wrote original Armenian lyrics to a great majority of the songs recorded. He drew inspiration from songs in other languages, writing the Armenian version of the Greek "Misirlou," which Reuben titled "Inne Orre." The song became a hit when the Batt Masian record label and band recorded it, again renaming the piece to "Akh Anoushes," featuring the voice of a young Onnik Dinkjian. The final two songs recorded by Reuben and Vart Sarkisian featured their children. Describing the story of "Siroon Vartes," Reuben recalled that "Once when Vart was in Chicago visiting our family, I sat down and composed a song about my loneliness. When she returned, we recorded it with our daughter Virginia and son Jack.”

By 1955, Reuben vowed never to record again after he felt cheated by record store owners. After the Sarkisians moved to Fresno, Reuben's fiddle playing again found popular acclaim in the 1970s when Richard Spottswood, a researcher and proponent of folk music in America, discovered the Sarkisians' recordings. Soon Reuben found himself performing at several festivals and concerts such as the National Folk Festival at Wolf Trap, Washington in 1978. Their music was also reissued when Mr. Spottswood produced the 15-volume LP series Folk Music in America for the Library of Congress -- the lone Armenian contribution would be the “Hallay” by Reuben Sarkisian. 

After Vart’s passing in 1976, Reuben continued to perform locally before his own death, 5 years later. The Sarkisians left an impressionable mark in the lineage of Armenian recorded music and contributed to the history of American recorded music. 

Summers, Keith: Musical Traditions No. 1 mid-1983

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.