Filmmaker Aramazt Kalayjian Brings ‘Tezeta’ to Life

Kalayjian first heard of the Ethiopian-Armenian community as a small child, growing up in the Hudson River Valley of New York. “As a child, my father had always told me stories of how many places we had Armenian communities. Poland, Uruguay, Australia, India and this also included Ethiopia. He had told me about an Ethiopian classmate he had at the now-closed Melkonian Boarding School.” But Kalayjian didn’t begin to fully explore his father’s tales of little-known Armenian communities until years later while he was living in Harlem, New York.

Kalayjian had taken an interest in the arts from an early age. He attended the Pratt Institute where he graduated with a degree in communications design. While attending a 10-week documentary filmmaking collaborative at the Maysles Institute in Harlem, Kalayjian explored the art of writing a treatment, budgeting, story-telling through video and what it takes to make a documentary film.

One day while visiting the Schoenberg Library of African Studies in Harlem, Kalayjian recalled his father’s stories and decided to ask if there were any materials that showed a historical connection between Armenia and Africa. The librarian — who Kalayjian noted happened to be half-Armenian —brought forth two books that described the trading patterns and goods between Armenians and Ethiopia during the 14th century. “I was enthused. It was magical, almost like discovering a secret treasure that had been hidden,” said of his discovery. The next day, Kalayjian met with his friend and musicologist, Miles McNulty, who introduced him to a series of Ethiopian music produced by Francis Falceto called “Éthiopiques.” While browsing the multi-disc collection, Kalayjian happened to find an Armenian name in the credits — Nerses Nalbandian. “After hearing this, and after some research, I learned about an orchestral group of 40 orphans of the Armenian Genocide from Jerusalem who were adopted by Emperor Haile Selassie I to serve as Ethiopia’s first imperial orchestra. I was hooked, I realized that there was a profound story whose surface I just began to touch.”

While planning his move from New York to Armenia, Kalayjian and his wife, Ani Jilozian, decided to visit Ethiopia in order to collect stories and began research on what he calls, “the Ethiopian-Armenian cultural and musical romance.”

Kalayjian explained that many people are aware of the story of the 40 Armenian orphans who served in the Ethiopian orchestral band and of their bandleader, Kevork Nalbandian, who wrote Ethiopia’s first national anthem. “What people don’t know about,” Kalayjian said, “are the others who worked to elevate Ethiopia’s level of music. Sona Stordio who taught piano lessons to many in Ethiopia. Ashkhen Avakian, who served on the board of Ethiopia’s only university-level music school, Yared School. Haig Manougian, who served as leader of the Police Academy Band for 10 years and spent six years translating Ethiopian church music from the traditional St. Yared musical notation to European musical notation,” and countless others. “The depth of which the Armenians helped to nurture the musical craft in Ethiopia is truly unknown.”

Kalayjian said that the response of both the Armenian-Ethiopian community, and the larger Ethiopian community has been amazing.