John Chookasian inducted into Fresno’s Valley Music Hall of Fame

John Chookasian, founder and director of the Chookasian Armenian Concert & Folk Ensemble, has been inducted into the 2024 Valley Music Hall of Fame in Fresno, Asbarez reports.

Chookasian and his wife, Barbara, have been culture bearers who decided to form an Armenian concert ensemble that would perform, preserve and record the many lost or forgotten Armenian songs and dances of Eastern and Western Armenia.

Chookasian released five Armenian albums, which are located and housed in the Smithsonian Library in Washington, D.C.