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Mission at SOM

Curriculum Vitae

Sylvia Davis Ahramjian
Associate Professor of Instrumental Music (Violin, Viola)

Room 226, Swope Music Building
Phone: 610-436-2401
sahramjian@wcupa.edu

Thoughts on SOM

This is a music school which is really going somewhere. The faculty is really unifying on requirements, and together is giving the best total education possible. Our students have many performing and teaching experiences while here. The new building is creating a feeling of excitement and renewal. While a state school with limited funds, our dean is being creative to continually create new opportunities for everyone faculty and students alike.

Mission at SOM

To teach as much musicianship as possible to all students, whether in the beginning violin/viola classes or the advanced performance majors. To create an atmosphere of excitement about music bringing as much style and international flavor as is possible. To make everyone here love string music and to create as many performing opportunities as possible.

Curriculum Vitae

Education
B.Mus., The Juilliard School; M.Mus., Indiana University

Sylvia Ahramjian is Associate Professor of Violin at West Chester University where she performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. She is also on the faculty of Temple University and the Temple University Preparatory school where she teaches privately and coaches chamber music.

Mrs. Ahramjian is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she was a scholarship student and studied under Ivan Galamian and Margaret Pardee. She received her Master of Music degree from Indiana University where she studied with Josef Gingold. She studied with Paul Rolland for two years at the University of Illinois where she completed all course work for her doctorate. She also studied the Alexander Technique for several years under Judy Barnett.

Two of her students have been National High School winners for the National Music Teachers Association Competition. In 2006, the student group Appassionato String Quartet was the Eastern Division Winner for that Competition as well. Her students have attended Juilliard, Curtis and the Eastman School of Music and won many awards and honors including performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Lansdowne, Lancaster and Delaware Symphony Orchestras.

In the summer of 1995 and 1996, she was on the faculty of the Festival of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Americas in Puerto Rico, which is part of the Casals Festival. She performed both solo and chamber music repertoire while there. In the summer of 1999 she received a faculty development grant to play a program of American Music with her group Trio Casals in Moscow, Russia. In the summer of 2000, she started a chamber music program as part of the University’s summer course offerings in Oxford, England. In the summers of 2001-2002 she gave master classes at an International Festival in Brasov, Romania. Also in the summer of 2002 she represented West Chester University at the Faculty abroad Initiative Program in Macau and Shanghai, China where she performed and talked about American Music. She returned to China in 2006 and performed and gave Master Classes at the China Conservatory in Beijing and Guizhou University. Two violin students from Guizhou University are currently studying here .She taught on the Luzerne Music Center Faculty from 1983-1995, the Adirondack Music Camp from 1998-2002 and in the summer of 2003 she taught at the Blue Mountain Festival. Currently she is on the faculty of the Governor's School for the Arts in Pennsylvania.

She has performed duo programs in Rome and Venice, Italy and been soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Ploiesti, Romania, the Bacu Philharmonic and a chamber orchestra in Bucharest, Romania. In the summer of 2002 she gave a series of concerts in the Czech Republic. She is a frequent performer on chamber series given by the Adirondack Ensemble, the Mid Atlantic Chamber Society, and the Kimberton Concert Series. She was featured on the Magie Baroche Festival in Scily Italy in the summer of 2006 and performed in London as a guest member of Coloquie a contemporary chamber group..

Mrs. Ahramjian just released a new recording entitled Crossroads. She also has a recording on Golden Crest records of the Khachaturian Trio. She was Concertmaster of the Lancaster Symphony in Pennsylvania for over 20 years. She performs regularly as soloist with many orchestras in the Delaware Valley including Immaculata, Delaware County and the Newark Symphony of Delaware. She is currently working on a CD of all viola music.

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