AGBU Arts Presents Ian Nagoski & Harout Arakelian “I am Servant of Your Voice: Armenian-American soprano Zabelle Panosian, 1891-1986″ Price: Free Description of event: The soprano Zabelle Panosian (b. Bardizag 1891; d. New York City 1986) was among the most significant voices of the genocide generation of Armenian-Americans. She recorded 11 songs from March 1917 to June 1918 for Columbia Records in New York City and personally raised millions of dollars for the relief of Armenians through benefit concerts in the late ‘10s, regularly collaborating with the tenor Armenag Shah-Mouradian. Her recordings resonated with audiences for decades. She toured Europe successfully and sought out Komitas Vadarpet in Paris before her music and story underwent a period of forgetting. A newly published biography of Panosian presents her story along with restorations of her recordings. Music researcher and reissue record producer Ian Nagoski who published Panosian’s biography with funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation will talk about her life and music along with comments by his co-author Harout Arakelian who will speak directly to her relationship to California.