WATERTOWN — Watertown gained another Armenian landmark when a new bust of ethnomusicologist Gomidas Vartabed (Soghomon Soghomonian) was unveiled on November 9 at the Armenian Cultural and Educational Center (ACEC) in Watertown.
ACEC Trustee Josh Tevekelian welcomed a large audience, including numerous Watertown officials, such as State Rep. Steve Owens, Councilman Nicole Gardner, Chair of the Watertown Cultural District Kristen Kenney, Executive Director of the Watertown Community Foundation Athelia “Tia” Tilson and Doug Orifice, cofounder of the Watertown Business Coalition. Tevekelian spoke about the 45 years of activities of ACEC and its importance for Armenian community life.
He said that erecting a statue to Gomidas (also transliterated as Komitas) could promote discussion for generations to come, declaring: “A statue is immortal, prominent and everlasting, much like the person and the legacy that one wishes to honor.”
Tevekelian related that in 2020, during the Covid pandemic, sculptor Dr. Megerditch Tarakdjian offered to donate the Gomidas bust to ACEC but the subsequent lockdown interfered with the ability to properly showcase it. In fall 2024, contact was reestablished and in a short period of time, the statue was installed. Tevekelian thanked the Montreal-based Tarakdjian and noted that his work is found in several institutions in the US, Canada and Armenia. He also thanked Toros Vosbikian, who sponsored the installation and the beautification of its surrounding area in honor of his father, Hampartsoum Vosbikian.
Chairman of the ACEC Board of Trustees Dr. Vatche Seraderian addressed the assembled in both Armenian and English about Gomidas’s significance by providing a brief biography of the composer, singer, musicologist and priest. He said, “Gomidas’s main legacy lies in his dedication to preserving and reviving Armenian folk music.”
Tarakdjian added further information about Gomidas’s musical legacy and remarked that the first two sculptures he had created when he started to work with bronze some 27 years ago were of Gomidas and Sayat Nova (and the former ended up at the Gomidas Chamber Music House in Yerevan). On the 50th anniversary of Gomidas’s birth, another of his Gomidas statues was erected in Montreal.
