Album Notes

"Can you hop, swirl, clap, sway from left to right? If you can do all these things or are just starting your first attempts, then this CD is for you!

You will pretend to eat flies and hop like a frog with Krko the Frog, will beg for food with the Kitty Mlavik, will dance with upbeat Armenian Traditional dances in Tsapik, Tsapik and Gortik, will pretend to take a bath in Chop, Chop, ride a train and go through a tunnel in Choo-choo, pretend to be an old man selling yogurt from house to house. . . Yes, you can act out the whole CD.

And as a bonus you will learn new vocabulary, like names of facial features in "Klorik em, Tmblik".

The whole idea of making a children's CD came when I had twins and was searching for music CD in Armenian. Being a classically trained singer, graduate of Komitas Conservatory in Armenia, it became apparent to me that I needed to create one. After two years from the time the idea was first born, here it is. It took us so long to create it that my children grew up enough to sing with me in one of the songs. "Kendaninneri Erg" (Animal song) features my son's and daughter's voices, 5-years-old".


Noune has been teaching early childhood music classes along with piano and voice for 14 years. She is the author of an Armenian music and movement program called “Yerajisht Manouk”. The pre-school music teacher training influences her approach with her work as a songwriter for children. Noune feels that the success of this CD comes from her knowledge of child development. "A lot of what I do comes from a child's perspective", says Noune. " Being a parent, of course, helps as well. I think about what the songs should convey and the language I use, the range of the songs, how each song can develop the child's mental and physical capabilities and I like to think I know how to write pretty catchy tunes. I give a lot of thought to what is appropriate for children's music.

“I created this CD because of my passion for Armenian music and language, my burning desire to give the children high quality music and learning experiences. This collection includes Armenian children’s folk songs from our rich and abundant folk heritage, from our historical roots. These are national treasures that I felt needed to be given a new life, like “Rain”, “Shvi” (Armenian recorder), “Clap, clap”. They are perfect in their simplicity. I have done some redesigning, like taking a children’s folk song and changing the words a little to appeal to today’s child, making it more educational, or taking a traditional Armenian rhyme and putting it together with another unrelated folk tune. It sounds so natural that people hearing it think that’s how it used to be. To that particular song I added new verses to teach little kids the names of few more facial features and hand - eye coordination. And do you know that making a related movement while saying the word makes that word harder to forget? That’s the way children learn best”.

Noune started writing music when she was 14. As a teenager she also won the first prize twice at Armenia’s National High School Students’ competition for her short stories.

Her ability to relate to her young audience and to create songs that are both entertaining and educational has made Noune incredibly popular with both children and their parents.