Endowed Chair affirms UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music’s commitment to engaging cultural communities in Los Angeles and around the world
Melissa Bilal, a leading expert on Armenian studies in Turkey and director of UCLA’s Armenian Music Program, has been named the inaugural holder of UCLA’s Promise Chair in Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture. Bilal is famous for his research on the history of Armenian music.
Endowed chairs created through donations UCLA Herb Alpert School of Musicsupports academic research, undergraduate and graduate courses in Armenian music, and academic conferences on Armenian music and performing arts.
UCLA President Gene Block said, “We are grateful for this investment in our continued efforts to deepen our understanding of Armenian culture, which will further strengthen UCLA’s position as a leader in Armenian studies.” said. “One of our core responsibilities as an academic institution is to promote a sense of global citizenship and cultural understanding, and expanding our faculty and scholarship in this field is an important part of our commitment to This is one way to make that effort a reality.”
With a legacy of scholarship on Armenia and its diaspora dating back more than 50 years, UCLA has established itself as one of the largest and most vibrant centers for Armenian studies outside of Armenia. The new Promise Chair at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music joins two other endowed chairs at UCLA dedicated to Armenian and Armenian studies.of Narekatsi Armenia Research Chairis the oldest endowed chair at UCLA, established in 1969, and supports the program in Armenian language and culture. The Armenian Educational Foundation endowed him with a chair in the Department of History in 1987, which was renamed the Department of History in 2011. Richard Hovhannisyan Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History.
“UCLA has been a leading place for Armenian studies for many years and is also a great place to collaborate with other artists and scholars,” Bilal said. “The creation of this chair will allow us to further expand our services to undergraduate and graduate students.”
Bilal holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago and an advanced degree from Bogazici University in Istanbul. She is a Visiting Scholar in History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Columbia University.
For the past two and a half years, she has served as associate director and then director. armenian music program at the Faculty of Music, the only academic program outside Armenia dedicated to the study and performance of Armenian music. The program offers a strong artistic program through public concerts, community outreach, undergraduate courses in Armenian music and dance, fellowships for students, and social support. VEM ensemblefounded and directed by violin professor Movses Poghosyan, is dedicated to the performance of Armenian classical music.
During Bilal’s tenure, the program expanded the VEM Fellowship to allow more students and graduates to study Armenian folk music as well as traditional Armenian instruments. The program has also embarked on several new research projects, including one examining the archives of renowned musicologist and song collector Bedros Alahaydoyan. The program’s upcoming four-CD set, “Serenade with a Dandelion,” celebrated with a public concert Scheduled for March 4th.
Bilal’s activities as chairman will also intersect. Promise Armenia Institute at UCLAwas founded in 2019 with a gift from the estate of philanthropist and entrepreneur Kirk Kerkorian. The Institute coordinates interdisciplinary research and public programs, serves as a hub of world-class scholarship and education, and supports faculty and researchers in fields ranging from the arts and sciences to public health and medicine. Masu.
Dr. Eric Esrailian, co-chair of UCLA’s Second Century Council and a UCLA faculty member, was a key figure in the creation of the Promise Institute. He believes the chair of the School of Music will strengthen UCLA’s position as the premier center for the study of Armenian culture in the world. “In her new role, Melissa Bilal will advance our close partnership with UCLA’s Promise Armenian Institute to foster collaboration across campus and expand the breadth of reach that only the nation’s top public universities achieve. “We will promote interdisciplinary scholarship and activities that can be done,” he said.
“UCLA and the School of Music are committed to increasing our impact both locally and globally, and this new chair will play a major role in advancing that mission,” said Eileen, the School of Music’s first dean.・Strempel said. Los Angeles is home to more diaspora communities than virtually any other American city, with a particularly vibrant Armenian community. UCLA’s broad purpose is driven by a commitment to creating a just and prosperous future for both our immediate community and the broader global community.
“Having the resources to support the ongoing research of distinguished scholars like Melissa will help our school do its part to deliver on that promise,” Professor Strempel said. “As performers, creators, and educators, we find that the nexus between practice and scholarship is at its most vibrant when we actively engage with diverse musical traditions within a city with such rich cultural diversity. Masu.”
Bilal’s academic research focuses on 19th and 20th century Armenian music and experience. Her latest book manuscript, Armenian Feminism: An Interpretive Anthology, was co-authored with MIT historian Lelna Ekmekcioglu and is a collaboration with 12 Armenian feminist writers born in the Ottoman Empire and active in Constantinople/Istanbul. , focuses on the post-Armenian genocide diaspora. From the 1860s to the 1960s.
“We look forward to bringing together scholars and artists to discuss the enduring legacy of Armenian musicians in world music history and the importance of Armenian music’s diverse repertoire and styles in our lives today.” Bilal said.
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