“Everyone in Armenia is a naturally born musician…Our music is taught, not to music students but to all children, in the schools, in the form of age-old songs, presented by rote, partly for their purely musical value and partly as history and tradition…This, then, is our musical training, and every child receives it.” - Armand Tokatyan, August 1935, The Etude Music Magazine, Philadelphia

As the “back to school” season begins, the Museum’s emphasis on language preservation and education continues. For this Sound Archive edition, we are sharing a recording not by a professional musician, but rather by a schoolteacher and community servant who only recorded one single disc. This unusual, one-of-a-kind record is a celebration of educators, and serves as an instructional resource for the Armenian language teacher.

In 1942, a group of ambitious Armenians in Los Angeles purchased a home with nearly two acres of land in the city’s West Adams district to build a second church for the growing Armenian community. Within a few months, the land would be converted and dedicated as St. James Armenian Church. After a few years, an auditorium was added and the Armenian Education Home was established. More land was purchased by the Armenian American community in the aftermath of WWII and the Los Angeles Home for Armenian Aged was built, later renamed the Ararat Home of Los Angeles.

Yeranouhi Jeroma Mooshian, the subject of today’s Sound Archive, devoted her time as a teacher and administrator for the Education Home and was a founding member of the Ararat Home. 

By the late 1940s, Yeranouhi was an active in Armenian arts and cultural affairs. She was born in Hadjin on November 5, 1905, as Yeranouhi Gizirian. She emigrated to the US in 1924 from Havana, Cuba and married Panos Mooshian that same year, also from Hadjin. Yeranouhi gave birth to two children, Charles and Lorraine, in Chicago before settling in Southern California with her young family in the early 1940s.

After Panos died in 1943, Yeranouhi would dedicate her activities to the Armenian community of Los Angeles. While serving as the president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the AGBU, she organized community events honoring figures such as writer Leon Surmelian, artist Jirayr Zorthian and stage actor Virginia Mamoulian. She also coordinated benefit concerts for the Ararat Home featuring dancer Karoun Tootikian and tenor Armand Tokatyan.

While it’s unknown if Yeranouhi ever performed publicly, she did have a small role in the 1952 film 5 Fingers. Coincidentally, the movie cast additional Armenian actors: Yeghishe Harout, Aram Katcher, and Konstantin Shayne (brother-in-law of Akim Tamiroff). The film would later be adapted into a television series starring David Hedison (Heditsian). 

This 78-rpm recording was published in 1950 on the Armenian owned Rec-Art label. A rather fascinating detail is Mooshian’s accompanist, none other than Zabelle Panosian, the first female Armenian recording artist in America. The soprano’s profound voice had once made her a star, but in this recording Panosian compliments Mooshian’s voice with a gentle piano accompaniment.

This disc includes four short pieces assembled for presentation to a kindergarten classroom: Manoushage, Pokrig Aghtchige, Pokrig Vantage and Siroun Shinige. Each piece begins with a reading of the lyrics followed by the singing of the song itself. Short and simple compositions that can be included in any classroom to captivate the imagination of a young scholar.

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.