Zabelle Panosian

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Zabelle Panosian (also known as Zabel Aram, Arm: Զաբել Փանոսյան; Զաբել Արամ) was an Armenian-American vocalist, opera and stage performer born in Bardizag (present-day Bahçecik, Turkey) on June 7, 1891. She emigrated to the US in April 1896 and married the photo-engraver Aram Sarkis Panosian, 12 years her senior. Panosian lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, from 1908 until at least 1920. During that time, she sang with the Boston Opera Company. In 1918, she recorded "Charmant Oiseux" - "Charming Birds" - from Felicien David[/artis]'s La Perle du Bresil, the only song she recorded in any language other than Armenian and which had been recorded by, among others, Luisa Tetrazzini in 1911, who had also sung with the short-lived Boston Opera Company. In April, 1917, she recorded five songs in Columbia’s studios in the Woolworth building on Broadway and was given the exceptional luxury of recording as many as seven takes during her recording sessions. It was common practice to record no more than three takes of any given performance by immigrant musicians, and the vast majority of recordings for Columbia's E (ethnic) series were made in one or two takes. “Groung” was the first of her recordings to be released and far and away her best-seller. Columbia kept it in print through numerous pressings until 1931 when they stopped selling Armenian-language material. It spoke directly to the dilemma of Armenians in the U.S., stranded by the chaos back home. User-contributed text is avail

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I Am Servant of Your Voice: April-May, 1917

I Am Servant of Your Voice: March 1917 - June 1918

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To What Strange Place : The Music of The Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916 - 1929

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To What Strange Place : The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929

I Am Servant Of Your Voice

I Am Servant of Your Voice: April 1917 - June 1918

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I Am Servant of Your Voice: April​-​May, 1917

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To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora 1916-1929

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To What Strange Place : Music of The Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929

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To What Strange Place: The Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929

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I Am Servant of Your Voice: April–May, 1917

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To What Strange Place B-Sides: more songs of the Ottoman-American diaspora, 1909-29

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