DUMBARTON OAKS

Just before 1990 would turn to 1991 the three friends - Moushegh Petrosyan (born 2.XII.1973,guitar),Vahagn Papayan (aka Jeff, born 13.XI.1971 bass, bassoon) and Haik Hovhannisyan ( born 30.VII.1971, drums) decided to form a rock band. At the time Moushegh was skillfully running his fingers on the guitar neck, Haik had recently bought a drum kit and used to exercise a couple of paradiddles, while Vahagn has never ever held a bass guitar in his hands, but was studying bassoon in Conservatory. However a day before their first public appearance in March 1991 they named the band they made “Dumbarton Oaks”, they didn’t know exactly why. Shortly after, Gor Grigoryan (29.VI.1976) joined DO on keyboards as the band’s creative ideas would surpass trio’s cushy possibilities. Just from the beginning of their career DO attracted attention by the attempt of commingling the rock sound with classical form in compositions like “Sonata for rock group in 3 movements”, “Once Upon a Time There Lived a Cadence”, etc.

In 1992 Moushegh quit the group and joined a jazz-rock band “Doctor Magnus”. Haik left DO because of family tensions. David Drambyan (23.VI.1975) and Ashot Korganyan (24.IV.1975) were the replacements as a guitarist and a drummer correspondingly. Time after time, when lead vocals were required, in compositions like”Butterfly”, “Hazeman”, “The Well” guest singers Rubina Abgaryan (Ruby Sunday) and Aram Asatryan (“Serenade” chamber orchestra principal violin by the way) were invited.

The first solo-concert of the renovated DO took place on September 26, 1993. “Thrash-Paraphrases on Schostakovich Themes” by D.Drambyan, “Empty Cage” and “Butterfly” by V.Papayan were the evidences that the classical background became more obvious in the band’s work.

In 1994 the band were recording tracks at Ardzagank Studio for the album
“In Memorium of the Munster King”, which remained unfinished.

Also the participation in “Music 5” and “Gaudeamus” festivals in 1994 were remarkable.

At the end of 1994 Armen Mkrtchyan came in as a replacement for David Drambyan, and despite grudging a tired existence for another half year, the economical unstableness in the country from one side, and creative breakdown inside group from the other, resulted the final splitting in June 1995.

In 1998 David Drambyan undertook the release of “Cadence”, an anthology CD, where all the proper recordings were included (studio, live and rehearsal).

Since 1999 Vahagn Papayan and Ashot Korganyan were designing a reconstruction of the former basis, which has realized in 2001 within a new group called OAKSENHAM.

Discography:

1998 - “Cadence” (anthology)

Oaksenham Story