From Our Home to Yours: A Family Affair Classical Concert Commemorates Genocide

Varty Manouelian made her American debut in 1993 with the North Carolina Symphony as First Prize winner of the Bryan International Competition. She has also been a prizewinner at a number of other competitions, including the Kotzian International Competition and the Wieniawski International Violin Competition. Manouelian has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras in the United States, Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, Poland, Spain, and Italy. Committed chamber musician, she participated at the Marlboro Music Festival, and has collaborated with such musicians as Kim Kashkashian, Rohan de Saram, Nobuko Imai, Thomas Adès, and members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Tokyo, and Brentano string quartets. Since joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2004, Manouelian has frequently performed at the LA Phil’s Chamber Music Society and Green Umbrella Series, as well as at Camerata Pacifica and the Dilijan Series. Her recent Bridge Records CD of Complete Violin Works of Stefan Wolpe (jointly with Movses Pogossian) made the 2015 Top Ten list in Sunday Times (UK). Varty Manouelian currently teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and at the Colburn School.

Edvard Pogossian (cello) is currently Young Artist in Residence at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapelle in Belgium, studying with renowned cellist Gary Hoffman, and is simultaneously pursuing a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music (London) with Richard Lester. As a winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, Edvard performed the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations at David Geffen Hall in New York and at the Harris Theater in Chicago with the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Itzhak Perlman. The Chicago Tribune praised Edvard’s performance for his “astonishing musical and technical maturity,” as well as his “winning lightness of touch to everything he played, combined with a velvety tone.” Some of the performance highlights include solo appearances with Boston Pops and Hollywood Bowl Orchestras, as well as chamber performances at Carnegie Hall, Zipper Hall, Louvre, and on NPR’s From the Top radio show. Edvard will be returning this summer to the Marlboro Music Festival, and has also participated at Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, Kneisel Hall, and Apple Hill festivals. He has studied previously with Rick Mooney, Ronald Leonard, Natasha Brofsky, and was a recipient of the prestigious Kovner Fellowship from the Juilliard School.

Twenty-one-year-old violist Cara Pogossian is currently a Junior at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Hsin-Yun Huang, and is a Co-Principal of the Curtis Orchestra. As a member of the Aurielle String Quartet, she is a Bronze Medal winner of the 2017 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition. Cara has attended the Taos School of Music (NM), the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program (VT), and the Perlman Music Program (NY), and will be attending Ravinia’s Stearns Music Institute this summer. Previously, she studied with Paul Coletti at the Colburn Music Academy, and also with Che-Yen (Brian) Chen. Cara has also taken private lessons with Kim Kashkashian, Misha Amory, Roger Tapping, Carla Maria Rodrigues, and Roberto Diaz. Cara was recently featured on NPR’s “From the Top” radio show, performing Brahms’ Viola Sonata with the host Christopher O’Riley, and has also performed at several high-profile concerts at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Zipper Hall (LA), and in Toronto. Cara is an organizer of several Music for Food performances at the Montrose (CA) Farmers Market, raising funds for local food banks.

Seventeen-year-old clarinetist Anoush Pogossian studies with Michael Yoshimi at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, where she is a member of the Ed and Mari Edelman Honors Chamber Music Institute. She has toured throughout Europe and the United States as a member of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA) under Sir Antonio Pappano, performing as Principal Clarinet in Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Seiji Ozawa Hall, and will be returning for the orchestra’s 2020 North American tour. She performed with Leila Josefowicz on NPR’s “From the Top” and will be participating in the Yellowbarn Music Festival’s Young Artists Program for the third time. Anoush was recently named a Grand Prize winner of the LA Music Center’s “Spotlight” competition, and her recognition as a 2018 YoungArts finalist and participation in National YoungArts Week led to her nomination to be a U.S. Presidential Scholar in Art in 2020. She has worked with Michele Zukovsky, Yehuda Gilad, Stephen Williamson, Ricardo Morales, Boris Allakhverdyan, Burt Hara, and Alan Kay, and performed under Karina Canellakis, James Conlon, Christian Macelaru, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Carlos Izcaray, and JoAnn Falletta.