The 19th-century poem titled “Groung” (Crane) by Hovhaness Tumanian was set by the Armenian monk and composer known as Komitas (born Soghomon Soghomonian). Ordained as a priest, Komitas was also a singer and a musicologist, becoming a central figure in Armenian music who then witnessed the 1915 Armenian Genocide. This arrangement is based on a version sung by Zabelle Panosian (1893–1986), recorded in 1916. Panosian, born in Armenia but living in New York at the time of this rendition, is known to have recorded only a dozen songs. The poem reads, in part, “A crane has lost its way across the heavens, / From yonder stormy cloud I hear him cry./ …I am exiled from my ruined nest, / And roam with faltering steps from hill to hill./ … Every bird its homeward way can trace, / But I must roam in darkness, lone and lost.”

Mary Kouyoumdjian is a composer with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first-generation Armenian-American and having come from a family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, she uses a sonic palette that draws on her heritage, interest in folk music, and background in experimental composition to progressively blend the old with the new. Kouyoumdjian is also a co-founder and the executive director of the New York–based contemporary music ensemble Hotel Elefant. In 2013 she was selected as the fifth recipient of a commission through the Kronos: Under 30 Project, a commissioning and residency program for composers under 30 years of age.

Mary Kouyoumdjian’s arrangement of Groung by Komitas was written for the Kronos Quartet.