VEM 2 — The UCLA Vem String Quartet performing at Villanova University

Arts & Culture Community Music

Tekeyan Cultural Association Brings UCLA VEM String Quartet to Six Cities

July 26, 2026

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WATERTOWN — The UCLA Vem String Quartet, during a spring tour sponsored and planned by the Tekeyan Cultural Association (TCA) and the UCLA Armenian Music Program, gave six concerts. The tour started in Philadelphia, then went on to Cambridge, Mass., Montreal, Ann Arbor and Southfield, Mich., and finally Altadena, Calif. In each of these cities, local TCA chapters made arrangements for presentations and performances. Vem gave bravura performances of works of Khachaturian, Komitas, Toumajan, Suni, Gazarossian, Saryan and Schubert.

Prof. Movses Pogossian addressing the audience at Holy Trinity Armenian Church (photo Aram Arkun)

This most likely would be the final Tekeyan-sponsored Vem tour with the charismatic prize-winning violinist Movses Pogossian, the founder and advisor of the UCLA Armenian Music Program, as Pogossian retired in June as Distinguished Professor of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Pogossian seems to connect effortlessly with audiences of all ages. He prefaces performances of important musical works with brief introductions providing their context and thus ensures greater engagement and understanding by listeners.

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TCA has sponsored a number of tours of the Vem Ensemble over the past decade, and as part of this collaboration, the Tekeyan Triptych was composed specially for Vem by Artashes Kartalyan in 2018, inspired by the poetry of Vahan Tekeyan. This work, premiered during the Vem tour of 2019, also appears on the 2020 Naxos/New Focus Recordings album “Modulation Necklace.”

The Vem Ensemble performing at St. John Armenian Church in Southfield, Mich.

The VEM String Quartet, in residence at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, is the cornerstone of the Armenian Music Program at UCLA, which in its 13 years of existence has become an internationally renowned leader in celebrating the richness and diversity of the Armenian musical tradition.

The Vem quartet performing at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Cambridge, Mass. (photo Aram Arkun)

Vem’s tour members included Ally Cho, Niall Tarō Ferguson, founder Movses Pogossian and Damon Zavala.

The UCLA Vem String Quartet performing in the Tekeyan Cultural Association’s Beshgeturian Center in Altadena, Calif.

Zavala, a Mexican-American violist and violinist from Oregon, declared the following about the current tour: “What’s been special about this tour isn’t just the delicious food and the generosity of the Armenian communities we visited through the various Tekeyan chapters, but how warmly and openly they welcomed someone outside their community into their culture, their stories, their music. As someone who isn’t Armenian, witnessing how powerfully this community understands where it comes from, and carries that story forward to guide its future, was something I will not forget. If there was one thing I took from this tour, it’s how music can be a cornerstone for bringing people together as storytellers, and being part of that process, and welcomed so warmly for it, was an honor.”

The Vem Ensemble performing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Cellist, composer and orchestrator Niall Taro Ferguson said, “Every VEM tour is special, particularly because we get to experience, in real time, the connective power of the music we present. We often remark on the distinct character of each community we visit, and moving between them in rapid succession only makes those differences more apparent. Yet the love for the music is never diminished. Our programs are intentionally curated to place the familiar alongside the new. As a performer, it is rare to encounter audiences who are as enthusiastic about songs they have sung their whole lives as they are about music they are hearing for the very first time.”

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A doctoral student of violin performance at UCLA, Ally Cho added: “As performers, we spend so much time preparing the music that it’s easy to forget what happens when it finally reaches an audience. This tour was a wonderful reminder of how music can create a sense of connection, even among people meeting for the first time.”

Local Cosponsors

The Vem Ensemble members, speakers and organizers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor presentation

In addition to TCA and UCLA, local cosponsors who helped make the tour possible included: on May 1, in Philadelphia, the Villanova Armenian Students’ Organization; in greater Boston, Holy Trinity Armenian Church on May 3; in greater Detroit, on May 9 Saint John Armenian Church and its Music Guild and on May 10, the University of Michigan Center for Armenian Studies (here there were guest speakers Melissa Bilal, director of the UCLA Armenian Music Program and Promise Chair of Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture, Ronald Suny and Anoush Suni).

The Vem quartet gave a demonstration and performance for the students at St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School in Watertown, Mass. (photo Aram Arkun)

Along with the formal performances, a pro bono Vem demonstration was given on May 4 to St. Stephen’s Armenian School students in Watertown, and the Vem members enjoyed special visits and tours of other Armenian institutions and sites of interest during their travels. For example, they visited the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research in Belmont, and in Philadelphia, the recently dedicated Armenian Heritage Walk, a garden/walkway surrounding the Armenian Young Mher Statue next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Excursions

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The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Topics: Music

People: Ally Cho, Damon Zavala, Fr. Vasken Kouzouian, Movses Pogossian, Niall Tarō Ferguson

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The May 8 Montreal concert and the May 17 Altadena concert were both at Tekeyan Centers without other local cosponsors, and the latter included a second unique component with a performance by the UCLA Armenian Music Ensemble. This group includes students Mickey Hashim on shvi, and Hayk Gargaloyan, duduk, with special guests folk singer Hasmik Harutyunyan, Antranig Kzirian, oud, and Vardan Baghdasaryan, kamancha.

at the TCA Beshgeturian Center

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Bilal also spoke at Altadena’s TCA Beshgeturian Center.

Melissa Bilal, director of the UCLA Armenian Music Program and Promise Chair of Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture, speaking at the TCA Beshgeturian Center in Altadena, Calif.

Recently, while recalling the Vem tours of past years, as well as this year’s performance, Boston area co-host Fr. Vasken Kouzouian, pastor of Holy Trinity Armenian Church, declared: “It has been a pleasure for the Holy Trinity Armenian Church to join with the Tekeyan Cultural Association for the third time in hosting the phenomenal Vem Ensemble of UCLA here in Greater Boston for the enjoyment of the community. The four gifted artists brought added beauty to our lives through classical music from the Armenian and Western traditions for the great enjoyment of all. We look forward to their return in the years to come.”

Vem and Tekeyan Cultural Association members with Fr. Vasken Kouzouian at Holy Trinity Armenian Church

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