The Tashjian Brothers
A special thank you to Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives for proving so many of the images in this piece.
Click to view the webinar with music researcher and collector Harout Arakelian on the Tashjian Brothers.
In 1909, Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian recorded six songs for the Columbia Phonograph Company. The following year he returned to record again, this time, with his two younger brothers Nishan and Levon recording a total of twenty-eight songs. These recordings not only represent the first recording artists of Armenian descent in the United States, they are also the first in the Armenian language. In 1908 Columbia began the “E series” for ethnic and foreign language recordings. Due to a typo, the first Armenian language recordings in America were attributed to a mister “M. O. S. Tashjian.” As well, leading discographies have not documented the first recordings by Mardiros Der Sarkis Tashjian nor the recordings accomplished with his brothers Nishan and Levon in 1910. All this changed when several 78 rpm discs were discovered in The Mesrob G. Boyajian Library at the Armenian Museum. Of these previously undocumented recordings is the fascinating song, Haireniked Mortsir - Columbia Records E531/4084. Researcher and record collector Harout Arakelian has mapped the story of the lives and histories of the Der Sarkis Tashjian family. With the aid of the Museum and private collectors, over a century later a near complete discography of the recordings by the Der Sarkis Tashjian brothers has for the first time been assembled. You can read the paper in full here.
A special thanks to Jesse Kenas-Collins for his digitization, writing, and research, and to Harry Kezelian and Harout Arakelian whose ongoing contributions of research and consultation have been critical to assembling the writings presented here.