Carillon: Sounds From A Dislocated Piano

Can sound provide solace? In 1915, at the age of ten, Aram Bajakian’s grandfather was deported from Sivas (a city in Central Turkey) in events that later inspired Raphael Lemkin to coin the word genocide. Of his family caravan, only three people (including him) survived the 500 kilometer walk on foot to Aleppo, Syria. In the summer of 2025, Bajakian traveled back to Sivas, the first person in his family to visit since the Armenian Genocide. For this world premier on April 24 (Armenian Genocide Rememberance Day), Bajakian is playing piano at an undisclosed location on UBC’s campus. He alters the piano’s sounds before sending them to the Ladner Clock Tower, where they are amplified. Carillon imagines the ability of sound to travel across land and oceans to the desert of Deir ez-Zor, where Bajakian’s ancestors’ bones are turning to dust in mass graves. And it hopes that the people and spirits who are present may also feel solace.