by Victoria Salcedo
UCLA International Institute, April 10, 2025 — The works of Armenian composer Grikor Mirzaian Suni (1876-1939), whose works embody a rich cultural legacy shaped by revolutionary fervor and political turmoil, almost vanished from collective memory. Mostly through familial devotion was his repertoire preserved, explained historian Ronald Grigor Suny during a recent event at UCLA organized by the Armenian Music Program of the Herb Alpert School of Music and co-sponsored by the Promise Armenian Institute.
In addition to remarks by several speakers, the event included emotive performances of Suni’s compositions that were arranged and performed by UCLA’s resident VEN Ensemble and AMP's mentors and fellows of Armenian folk music. Selections included the lullaby “Nenni Bala” and vibrant renditions of traditional Armenian folk melodies, giving attendees an evocative journey through the Armenian musical past.
Ronald Grigor Suny. (Photo: Victoria Salcedo/ UCLA.)
Cellist Niall Tarō Ferguson of the VEM Ensemble highlighted that his arrangements of Suni’s music were all based on melodies collected by the composer and musicologist, but employed styles that would be new to the audience.
The performance represented an effort to recover and publicly re-introduce Suni’s musical heritage. “We organized the concert around the theme of music and transmission as part of the larger project of unearthing and sharing Grikor Mirzaian Suni’s musical, intellectual and revolutionary activist legacy,” remarked Melissa Bilal, director of the Armenian Music Program. Dr. Bilal emphasized the urgency of documenting, digitizing and reviving Suni’s work.
Anoush Tamar Suni, great-granddaughter of the composer and a postdoctoral fellow at the Promise Armenian Institute, spearheaded the event with Dr. Bilal. For Anoush, Suni’s music was an ever-present force in her upbringing, largely thanks to her mother, Armena Marderosian, a pianist who dedicated herself to sharing this cultural legacy.
“I grew up with music all around me,” Anoush recalled. “My mother, Armena, was a Suzuki piano teacher.” (Suzuki piano pedagogy emphasizes natural learning through listening and playing by ear.) She shared how her mother meticulously taught her and her sister, Sevan Suni, many of their great-grandfather’s compositions, ensuring the music’s passage through generations.
After her mother’s death in 2012, Anoush explained, “[T]he music went quiet… [a]nd the Suni Project went into hibernation.” Encouraged by UCLA’s Armenian Music Program's director Dr. Bilal, Anoush reopened her family’s musical archive, rediscovering a wealth of original manuscripts, ethnographic notebooks and concert materials.
Suppression, Family Transmission and Revival of a Complex Musical Heritage
Suni’s music encompassed a broad spectrum of styles, from folk transcriptions to revolutionary marches, operatic works and art songs. His artistic accomplishments are best understood against the background of his complex political history. Initially aligned with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), he later joined the Communist Party, only to be expelled after openly criticizing Stalin’s purges in 1937. Consequently, his music faced suppression in Soviet Armenia and was marginalized among diaspora Armenians in America.
“This complex man who demanded so many things from people — political and artistic allegiances and so forth —is someone whose music was also lost or forgotten fundamentally,” said Ron Suny. Many original scores were left behind in Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia) and Istanbul during periods of upheaval, contributing to significant gaps in the composer’s musical archive.
The February event marked the official relaunch of the Suni Project, an initiative dedicated to the preservation and wider dissemination of Suni’s compositions. “With this concert and in collaboration with the Armenian Music Program at UCLA, we are thrilled to be relaunching the Suni Project,” Anoush said. Future efforts of the Suni Project are slated to include archival digitization, further research, educational programs and performances aimed at reconnecting the global Armenian community with its diverse musical heritage.
Ronald Suny reflected on the broader implications of rediscovering cultural heritage saying, “Whenever we talk about our forebears, we are, in a sense, reconstructing not only our family traditions, but more broadly, the traditions of our whole people.” He went on to stress the importance of protecting artistic legacies to foster cultural stability and identity amid ongoing global change.