University
From Russia With Music
- Angela Cholakyan
- Photo/Dietmar Quistorf
By Eddie North-Hager on May 15, 2009 3:24 PM
A lifetime of dedication and perseverance finally paid off when Angela Cholakyan earned her doctorate in musical arts from the USC Thornton School of Music.
For Cholakyan, her destination had been mapped out ever since she first experimented with a piano when she was 9 months old.
Yet for nearly two decades her dreams were deferred after escaping communism in search of the American Dream.
Her course was no longer set.
“It was like being in the middle of an ocean,” Cholakyan said.
Born in the Soviet Union, Cholakyan’s schooling focused on music from the time she was 6. She continued her education at the famed Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Yet even as she benefited from the communist system, that very system also created insurmountable roadblocks.
She couldn’t go far because of discrimination, as her parents were born in Jerusalem. And the economy was in shambles. In 1988, after bribing some officials to obtain visas, she left with her parents and sister to reunite with her uncle in Los Angeles.
“I was ready to leave, but of course it was painful,” said Cholakyan, who was fresh out of school at the time. “There was no future. It was like rats running from a sinking ship.”
Once in the United States, Cholakyan for a time put away her piano to become a mom and work odd jobs to make ends meet.
“We were happy because for the first time in our lives, we could make decisions on our own and survive on our own,” Cholakyan said.
USC Thornton School of Music professor Norman Krieger discovered Cholakyan in 1993 at the Florida International Competition. It took 10 years, but Krieger eventually inspired her to go back to school “and get back on track,” Cholakyan said.
“Better late then never,” Cholakyan said matter of factly. “There are so many people who helped me get to where I am.”
In addition to winning piano competitions and becoming a sought-after instructor while at USC, Cholakyan also had her conducting debut in November. In February, she was accepted into USC’s artist diploma program, which emphasizes performance, and she should graduate in 2011.
“After 21 years in America, I can say with confidence that I love this country and that I am American more than I am anything else,” Cholakyan said. “However, there is another side to my identity: I am Armenian born and raised in Russian culture, and I cannot erase or forge that. I think the best I am playing so far is Russian music. It’s in my blood.”
Read about other 2009 USC graduates, including father and son Michael and David Gibson, chemistry student Eric Zuniga and four exceptional graduates from USC College.
TAGS: commencement 2009
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