His True Blood
Hollywood actor Joe Manganiello tells the story of his Armenian ancestors and the truth about the 1915 Genocide
Image
-
Image
Some NYSEC members on stage with performers at the 2019 concert at Carnegie Hall. -
Image
Performing artists at Carnegie Hall in 2019.
A Talent for Fundraising
AGBU New York Special Events Committee (NYSEC)
A rising star couldn’t ask for a better confidence and resume builder, and AGBU NYSEC has really looked out for these talented individuals in an exemplary way.
Written for AGBU Impact Magazine 2022 by Laura L. Constantine. Photos by Andrew Moughalian.
AGBU always seeks to support scholarship alumni in developing their careers, especially in fields for which there is no straight roadmap to success, like the arts. The AGBU New York Special Events Committee (NYSEC) has gone above and beyond to supplement the AGBU Performing Arts Scholarship budget with its annual benefit “Performing Artists in Concert” at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The best part is that the headliner performers are recipients of AGBU Performing Arts scholarships, giving them the golden opportunity to showcase their virtuosity and mastery before a live and culturally sophisticated New York audience.
Another interesting feature of each concert is the rendition of the most recently awarded winning composition of the AGBU Sayat Nova Competition, which invites musicians of all nationalities and backgrounds to compose a new work based on the poetry of Sayat Nova, an 18th-century Georgian-born Armenian poet and musician.
Nila Festekjian, the chair of the NYSEC committee, notes that the annual competition, organized by AGBU Arts, “offers one more way to spread the rich and unique Armenian musical culture to the world and there’s no more universal venue than Carnegie Hall.”
In 2019, NYSEC celebrated its 10th year orchestrating this highly prestigious concert at a renowned venue in one of the world’s cultural capitals. The committee has already made it possible for 38 recipients to study at the top schools in the New York tri-state area, such as The Julliard School, and the arts programs at Columbia University, and New York University (NYU).
Festekjian explains: “A rising star couldn’t ask for a better confidence and resume builder, and AGBU NYSEC has really looked out for these talented individuals in an exemplary way—thanks to the generosity of the donors we depend on to help support our efforts. It’s a concept that also lends itself to other fields in which scholarship alumni can network to raise funds for a specific field or profession. They can also make referrals and serve as references for promising new graduates or become mentors through those early years of career building.”
NYSEC 2022 Members
Nila Festekjian (CHAIR)
Anita Anserian
Nadine Ariyan
Betty Cherkezian
Linda Gezdir
Maral Hajjar
Hilda Hartounian
Maral Jebejian
Vesna Markarian
Sossy Setrakian
Vera Setrakian
This article was featured in the 2022 release of AGBU Impact Magazine. For more information on AGBU Arts, click here. For more information on the upcoming concert, click here.
Image
October 13, 2022
