Syrian musician reflects her sorrow through melodies

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Chamamyan’s obligatory exile from Syria has given her a chance to embark on a journey of discovery. 'After the big pain, I have had a chance to discover myself. The pain turns to music.' DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

Famous Syrian singer Lena Chamamyan played a long-anticipated show in Istanbul on July 17 as part of a somewhat melancholic “return” to Turkey for the jazz musician, a half-Armenian, half-Syriac artist whose family roots lie in Kahramanmaraş.

“Coming to Turkey makes me sad,” she told the Hürriyet Daily News. “This is my first visit to Turkey; I am really happy meeting with Turkish people and also Turkish-Armenians. ... Meeting with Turkish-Armenians, it’s like meeting with old friends. ... I am so glad to be here but it’s so weird in the mean time. My feelings are so mixed.”

Damascus-born Chamamyan, who played at Yıldız Palace alongside pianist Tuluğ Tırpan, cellist Özer Arkun and kanun player Göksel Baktagir, has also had to abandon her homeland due to the civil war and is currently living in Paris. Nonetheless, Chamayan vowed to one day return to Syria. “If the fight were to finish in Syria, I’ll return to my country. As an artist, I can’t live under a foreign sky.”

Chamamyan also talked about her family’s story in Kahramanmaraş during the massacres perpetrated by Ottoman forces against Armenians in 1915. “My grandfather told me his brother went to the army that time. My grandfather arrived in Syria.”

On politics

Commenting on her trip to Turkey, Chamamyan said there were many good and bad people everywhere in the world. “But in general, I discovered that the biggest problem is always the politicians. I never, ever deal with politicians. Ignorance is so painful, and politicians do nothing.”

Chamamyan’s obligatory exile from Syria has given her a chance to embark on a journey of discovery. “After the big pain, I have had a chance to discover myself,” she said, adding that she created her music with sadness and sorrow. “The pain turns to music.”

She also said she told herself in 2011 that to stand up for one’s own people, “you have to give your people hope.”

The music of Chamamyan

The singer, who combines jazz and classical Armenian music, was born in Damascus, where over the course of her elementary and secondary education she participated in many school concerts, the first of which she held at the age of 5. She started studying music at the age of 9 and graduated from the economics management department at Damascus University in 2002. She studied at the higher institution of music in Damascus and graduated as a classical vocalist in 2007.

She has also worked with many vocalists and musicians of different nationalities in many jazz festivals in Syria.

As part of her musical trajectory, Chamamyan has mixed classical with oriental jazz and Armenian music to reflect the unique essence of her style as a vocalist. She was charmed from the very beginning by the idea of mixing simple oriental tunes with cords. Many friends from the higher institution of music helped her understand and conceptualize the project, the first of whom was Basel Rajoub, who has arranged some of her music.