The Tekeyan Centre Fund had the honor to host the talented contemporary singer and songwriter Berge Turabian and the singer Nairi Gasparyan, who performed at the musical event titled "The Armenian Soul: Western Armenian Poets in Songs." They performed songs of the great Armenian poets Vahan Tekeyan's, Daniel Varuzhan's, Misak Metsarents's, Ruben Sevak's, Petros Duryan's, poets from Istanbul Zahrat's, Zareh Khrakhuni's, Igna Saraslan's verses set to music by Berge Turabian.

The Director of the TCF Armen Tsulikyan made a welcoming speech and introduced Berge Turabian as a songwriter, a singer, also an interpreter and performer of Charles Aznavour's songs in Armenian. While speaking of the challenges the Armenian nation faces today, A.Tsulikyan highlighted Turabian’s latest video clip – the Armenian version of Charles Aznavour's song "Children of war".

In an amiable atmosphere, Turabian shared memories, biographical episodes that had inspired him to set the poems of Armenian geniuses to music. With a unique interpretation, he sang "Yes Siretsi” (I Loved), "Irikun" (Evening), "Kandzrever" (It Was Raining), "Kaghandi Tsar" (New Year’s Tree), "Katilner" (Drops) and other masterpieces in a duet with Nairi Gasparyan. At the end of the concert, the audience enjoyed Charles Aznavour's songs "La Boheme", "La Mamma", "Eh, raz, yescho raz" in Armenian performed by Turabian.

Berge Turabian was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1950. He first attended the Mkhitarian School in Cairo, and then continued his education in French, at Collège des Frères. He has been surrounded by music from a very early age and had a passion to singing. He sang not only at family gatherings, but also at the Armenian community events.

At the age of fifteen, Berge repatriated to Soviet Armenia with his family. He graduated from the State University of Armenia, where he later taught the French language and literature. Being a student in humanities, immersed in the world of literature and languages, he began to write lyrics for his songs and in the late 1960s, was among the wave of chansonniers emerging in Armenia. In 1980s he moved to the USA and continued his education at the NY Columbia University.

Berge Turabian is a self-taught singer and songwriter. He has had concerts in Yerevan, Paris, in different cities of the US and Canada. On the occasion of Charles Aznavour’s 85th and 95th birth anniversaries, two CDs titled “Aznavour in Armenian” were produced which contained Armenian versions of Aznavour’s songs translated and performed by Berge Turabian. He’s also produced a few other CDs as well, amongst which are “Somewhere & Someday" (the lyrics and music were written by him), “Charents – the Armenian Poet in Songs,” “Hayeren” (poetry of Western and Eastern Armenian poets), “Your Name” (the poetry of Vahan Tekeyan), and “Bird Soul” (the poetry of Armenian cotemporary poets from Istanbul: Ikna Sariaslan, Zareh Khrakhuni and Zahrad).