Torcom Bezazian, Katcheri Bar/Leretzi Amberan
Name/Title
Torcom Bezazian, Katcheri Bar/Leretzi AmberanDescription
Torcom Bézazian was an Armenian vocalist and recording artist active primarily during the 1910s and 1920s whose career bridged Armenian, French, and American musical worlds during the formative years of the commercial recording industry. Although he is sometimes mistakenly identified as a tenor in later references, contemporary recording catalogues and industry publications consistently classified him as a baritone, and most of his surviving recordings were marketed under that vocal designation. He was born in Constantinople on September 23, 1889. After leaving the Ottoman Empire, Bézazian continued his education in France, graduating in engineering from the University of Nancy before turning seriously toward vocal study. He reportedly trained in music under the French composer and pedagogue Vincent d’Indy, placing him among a small generation of Armenian singers who combined European conservatory instruction with Armenian repertoire traditions. Bézazian arrived in the United States in 1913 and developed a performance career that included opera appearances, concert work, vaudeville, and recording. His recording activity began in 1915 and expanded rapidly. Between 1915 and the mid-1920s he recorded extensively for major American labels including Columbia, Victor, and Edison, becoming one of the earliest and most recorded Armenian vocalists of the acoustic recording era. His discography included Armenian songs, French art and popular songs, patriotic repertoire, operatic selections, and multilingual recordings intended for immigrant audiences. Contemporary documentation indicates that he recorded dozens of sides in Armenian and French and later issued recordings through Armenian-owned labels as well. Among the recordings associated with Bézazian are “Nor-oror,” an Armenian lullaby connected to the composer Krikor Proff-Kalfaian, and a series of French-language recordings produced for Edison and Columbia. He also collaborated professionally with the American trumpeter Edna White, with whom he later formed the vaudeville act Bezazian & White and recorded duet repertoire, including selections from the operetta Leblebici Horhor Agha. The two married in 1925. By the late 1920s Bézazian left the United States and traveled to France. Documentation concerning the final decades of his life remains limited, and his date and place of death have not been firmly established. Despite gaps in the historical record, his surviving recordings remain an important source for the study of early Armenian recorded music and the transnational performance culture of Armenian musicians in the early twentieth century.Audio Format
78 RPM RecordRecording Type
MusicCategory
Vinyl Record