On Sunday, December 3rd after Badarak and a lovely coffee hour, Lara Bakhtiraian blessed the parishioners of Saint Stepanos Armenian Church with her beautiful voice in her vocal concert: “Christmas in Artsakh.” All proceeds from the performance were donated to provide much-needed supplies to Artsakh’s displaced families.
Lara is a twenty-three-year-old Physician’s Assistant student at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She has attended Saint Stepanos Armenian Church her entire life, growing up as part of Armenian and Sunday school and singing for the parish choir since she was ten years old. Since she was young, Lara had a gift for singing and took any opportunity for vocal training that she could throughout her schooling. She took voice lessons and performed as a part of countless musicals and choir performances throughout her high school years at Red Bank Catholic High School. Most notably, Lara recorded a Christmas CD when she was twelve years old and raised over $18,000 from the sales of the CD to donate to Mary Izmirian’s Children’s Home in Armenia.

Lara let compassion fuel her music once more in her concert this past Sunday, where she spoke beautifully about the plight of the Armenian people and sent her prayers and music to them. After an encouraging introduction from Dr. Tavit Najarian, Lara launched into her songs, putting together an arrangement of ten emotional and uplifting pieces. Singing traditional Christmas songs, such as “O Holy Night” by Josh Groban, overall classics like Celine Dione’s “My Heart Will Go On” and “Hallelujah,” and accompanying Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli in a few of his most beautiful pieces, Lara’s voice soared through the church and struck heartstrings throughout the audience. The concert also included a melodic, self-composed piano arrangement by Haig Bakhtiarian, Lara’s brother and long-time parishioner at Saint Stepanos Armenian Church.
Displaying incredible stamina by singing strongly through her ten songs, maintaining interaction with the audience, and keeping the focus of the performance on the Artsakh people, Lara’s performance demonstrated her talent, poise, and class.

To end off her concert, Lara dedicated the final piece of the show, Andrea Bocelli’s “Time To Say Goodbye,” to her grandfather Haroot Mouradian. Her voice melded perfectly with the Italian opera singer’s in this piece, and the song served as a beautiful ending to her hour-long tribute to the Armenians impacted by the attacks on Artsakh. After her concert, Lara came into the crowd to greet her family and friends in the audience, all of whom were moved by her voice and the purpose of her concert. Filling the afternoon with music, prayer, family, and charity, “Christmas in Artsakh” served as a strong opening to the Christmas season, reminding all members of the audience of the true meaning of Christmas and the strong ties we hold to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ.