{"id":122337,"date":"2026-03-06T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=122337"},"modified":"2026-03-06T13:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:00:02","slug":"preview-pianist-eve-egoyan-presents-stone-composition-written-armenian-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/03\/06\/preview-pianist-eve-egoyan-presents-stone-composition-written-armenian-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Pianist Eve Egoyan Presents In Stone, A Composition Written For The Armenian Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pianist
Pianist Eve Egoyan (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian Armenian pianist Eve Egoyan is presenting the premiere of her piece In Stone on March 12. The concert is part of her residency as the Artist in Residence at the Jackman Humanities Institute in partnership with the Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

In Stone is a work for augmented acoustic piano and reflects on the Armenian Genocide that took place between 1915 and 1923. The composition was created in response to the Jackman Humanities Institute\u2019s annual theme of Dystopia and Trust.<\/p>\n

\"Pianist
Pianist Eve Egoyan (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Armenian Genocide<\/h3>\n

The Armenian Genocide is sometimes referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century. By the spring of 1915, about 1.5 million Armenians, Christian by faith, were living in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire. Poor to WWI, the Armenians had a somewhat protected space within Ottoman Society as a minority. However, after the Ottoman Empire went through a number of military defeats, and had lost territory, during the Balkan Wars of 1912 to 1913. The setbacks turned the tide of opinion against the Armenians, who the regime saw as having closer ties to Anatolia.<\/p>\n

The Ottoman regime sent paramilitary forces to massacre Armenians during their invasions of Russian and Persian territory in 1914. This initiative escalated in 1915, when the Ottoman authors targeted Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, arresting them, and deporting them via torturous marches through the Syrian desert. It\u2019s estimated that between 800,000 and 1.2 million Armenians were sent on these death marches, where they were deprived of food and water, robbed, raped, and often murdered along the way. In 1916, another wave of such deportations was initiated.<\/p>\n

Whoever survived was sent to a concentration camp.<\/p>\n

About 100,000 to 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly concerted to Islam and integrated into Muslim households. About 500,000 survivors were exiled.<\/p>\n

The 2,000 year old Armenian civilization in eastern Anatolia was wiped out, and the atrocities continued until about 1923 during the Turkish War of Independence. The genocide has never been acknowledged by Turkey, which has resulted in the distorted history for Armenian survivors and their descendants which persists to this day.<\/p>\n

Eve Egoyan performs her composition Ghosts Beneath My Fingertips in 2021:<\/p>\n