Mgrdichian had taken up oud, self-taught, as a result of initially playing on the Armenian wedding, party and dance circuit as a clarinettist. The other was George Mgrdichian, a Philadelphia-raised American of Christian-Armenian stock.
Oud had been an instrument of expatriate communities with disparate roots in the Near East, Middle East and Transcaucasus. During the early to late 1960s, the oud travelled further than it had ever done in terms of public awareness in Europe and North America. Arguably, two musicians were the great torchbearers for the instrument One was the Nubian oud maestro Hamza El Din. The oud or ‘ud entered European languages with borrowings such as lute, luth, la?nd Laute.

The instrument itself took longer to enter the musical vocabulary. George Mgrdichian, oud player: born Philadelphia 28 January 1935; died New York 30 April 2006. “We must not write off some children as unfit for the world of education,” he added.Tough action also needed to be taken against failing schools with privately-sponsored academies offering “a clear and viable way out for failing schools”.Teachers’ leaders last night welcomed his speech as showing a clear sign he intended to improve the lot of the least well-off pupils.But Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, cautioned: “The clear commitment to constant reform and renewal needs, however, to be tempered with a recognition that schools need time to embed and consolidate change if it is to be effective and sustainable.”. “We need to demonstrate that the public sector can outperform the private sector,” Mr Johnson said.One of his key priorities would be a drive to improve the education of children in care – who were up to 25 times more likely to end up in prison or some form of custody as adults.He said that a Green Paper would be produced this summer outlining ways of improving their performance at school.

We make a bad system worse – running the risk of wider community unrest, greater racial tension and deeper social exclusion,” he said.He said the aim that the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, set out in his Budget speech in March – of bringing spending levels on state schools up to those in the independent sector would create “a great launch-pad” to improve standards. Now only a very small minority did not “which is arguably an even harsher condition”.”Because it is those groups who are already liable to social exclusion that the education system fails. Instead, the “trust” schools would give heads greater freedom to innovate and improve standards.Mr Johnson acknowledged that some youngsters still got a “raw deal” from their schooling.In days gone by it was only a very small minority that received a good education. “We need to fight these ideological demons,” he added.He said it was “rubbish” to suggest they would cream off the brightest pupils. “The truth is they will work under exactly the same code of fair admissions as other schools with academic selection ruled out,” he added.