A MEMORIAL Service for well-known pianist Keghdsin Guebenlian, who died earlier this year, will be held on Sunday at the Armenian Church in Nicosia, presided over by His Eminence Archbishop Varouj Hergelian, the Armenian Community’s Prelate in Cyprus.
When Keghdsin (which means ‘beautiful’ in Armenian) was born in Aleppo, Syria, on Christmas Day, 1918, her mother – a journalist, poet and playwright – started an album for her and on its front page she wrote: “My little daughter, try to live a life pleasant to yourself, useful to your parents and exemplary to the community at large.”
Keghdsin grew up and did just that: she chose a career in music in Cyprus where her family sought refuge from the turmoil in south-western Turkey in the early twenties.
Her first piano lesson was on November 14, 1928 under Miss Alice Mouradian in Nicosia. She later studied under Miss Egyptiades at her Academy of Music.
Within 20 years she was ready for her first solo piano recital at the British Institute Hall in Nicosia, on December 1, 1946. This was one year after the birth of the Cyprus Mail, whose music critic, Nicola Kieselbach Ivanov, wrote: “Miss Guebenlian was a talented performer at her first solo recital…”.
In 1948, Keghdsin won a two-year scholarship for piano studies in Paris. On her return, in parallel with her frequent performances as a concert pianist, she launched a career in piano teaching. By the 1980s, more than 100 students from every shade and community in Cyprus had passed through her hands. Several among them are piano teachers themselves in Cyprus and abroad.
Annual examinations for which her students sat were conducted in the presence of examiners from internationally recognised London institutions. They praised Miss Guebenlian for her teaching method while her students attracted high marks annually, consistently.
In 1968, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London, awarded a three-year scholarship in London to one of her gifted pupils, John Kyrris, who had passed five successive years of examination with distinction.
Parallel to her teaching career, Miss Guebenlian took part in almost every programme of music in concerts for charity and community activities. During the War, troops charities were included in the concerts she played in. She charged no fees. She was truly living “a life with a career pleasant to herself, and useful, exemplary to the community at large”.
She bequeathed her impressive collection of sheet music, scores and books to the Kohar Music School in Gyumri (formerly Leninagan) in Armenia – her spiritual home.
She donated the piano used by her pupils during lessons to the Greek Cypriot school opposite her Nicosia residence.
She donated her Steinway upright to the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation. Her name appears on a plaque inside the keyboard cover.
