The Armenian Sisters

There are scarcely a dozen name musicians in the U.S. who are both able and willing to play avant-garde music. Because of their talent and their warm sympathy for struggling composers, the Ajemian sisters rank high among this handful. Last week, at Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pianist Maro and Violinist Anahid Ajemian played a representative program, including works by Austrian Ernst Krenek, American Alan Hovhaness, the late German Kurt Weill and Spaniard Carlos Surinach. The Ajemians not only played without a fee but ended the evening owing a sizable printer's bill for programs.

Both Maro, 30, and Anahid, 28, are traditionally trained musicians, graduates of the Juilliard School, and fully able to serve the U.S. concert circuit with the generous helpings of Brahms and Beethoven that keep audiences happy. But planning a program seems to them rather like planning a menu. If the artist does not include something from contemporary life, it is like leaving out the meat and potatoes. Their career in contemporary music got its impetus from the fact that they are of Armenian descent. While still a student at Juilliard, in 1942, Maro had to prepare a concerto and chose Aram Khachaturian's now-famed Piano Concerto ("because he was an Armenian"), gave it its U.S. premiere. The concerto was an instant hit and Maro took it on a cross-country tour. Says she: "At that time, Khachaturian seemed very modern; now, of course, he is considered little more than just this side of Rimsky-Korsakov."

As a result of that excursion into contemporary music, the Ajemians began to meet composers, notably Boston's Alan Hovhaness (who is half-Armenian, half-Scottish). They felt sorry for "the poor composer who knocks himself out writing new music and then can't hear it played."

There is little money in modern music. The Ajemians think they are doing fine if a year's concert fees pay for their transportation, living expenses and special clothes. Says Anahid: "Luckily, we have husbands who make a decent living." But marriage has also complicated their rehearsal problems. Maro is married to an American Oil Co. chemist and lives in California, Anahid to an executive of Columbia Records and lives in Manhattan. The sisters have found a way out of this dilemma. Once they have decided, often via the mails, what works they will play in a coming concert season, each records her interpretation on tape and ships it off, followed perhaps by a long letter. Explains Maro: "The tape mainly shows my phrasing and how I am thinking about a certain work. Anahid can then see if she agrees or not, and use it to practice with."

Since they enjoy touring together, their encouragement of modern composers is as much a matter of necessity as of dedication to the cause. They commission new music for violin and piano duos ("We pay quite small fees, but something"). If they did not commission such works, they would be left with Chausson, Haydn, and very little else. Much of what they play is twelve-tone music. Says Anahid: "It's difficult, and some of it sounds awful at first, with all those great jumps all over the place. But often there are quite beautiful melodies."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.