Once again the Tekeyan Centre Fund had the honor to host the talented contemporary singer and songwriter Berge Turabian and singer Nairi Gasparyan, at the musical event titled "Charents and Tekeyan." The evening was dedicated to honouring the literary contributions of renowned Armenian poets Yeghishe Charents and Vahan Tekeyan.

Turabian’s and Gasparyan’s first concert at Tekeyan Centre was held in 2022 when they performed at the musical event titled "The Armenian Soul: Western Armenian Poets in Songs." The audience enjoyed Berge Turabian’s songs featuring the poems of the great Armenian poets Vahan Tekeyan, Daniel Varuzhan, Misak Metsarents, Ruben Sevak, Petros Duryan, Zahrat, Zareh Khrakhuni, Igna Saraslan.

This time, in a beautiful combination of poetry and music, songs featuring Charents’s and Tekeyan's lyrics were performed, The songs were taken from Berge Turabian's albums “Charents” and “Anund” (Your Name). In an amiable atmosphere, Turabian shared personal stories, memories, and biographical episodes that had inspired him to set the works of these great poets to music.

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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).