Bienen senior Arsen Tujian has spent the past four years at Northwestern studying music composition and business. But outside of his studies, Tuijan is the co-founder and managing director of Empire Lakes Productions, a production company he and his friend Luke Bonham founded in June 2020. The Daily spoke with Tujian about his motivation for starting the company, the challenges his team encountered and his hopes for the future.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The Daily: Why did you decide to start a production company during a pandemic?Â
Tujian: I was back home in California, and Luke, who goes to the University of Oregon, was also in California. We are both musicians, so we love to play and listen to live music. We were really bummed that with COVID-19, there really wasn’t an opportunity to have live concerts anymore. So we decided to put on socially distanced live concerts. We reached out to local artists in the area and found a way through which we
The Monthly: April Edition
In this edition of the Monthly: At Project Onward, a local Chicago studio, neurodiverse creators create art and community.
Further reads: Monthly Editor Janea Wilson reflects on the importance of optimism, as well as the unraveling of Season 25 of The Bachelor. Digital Managing Editor Haley Fuller profiles Coffee Lab and the community that’s been built at the Evanston coffee shop. Bienen senior Arsen Tujian chats with senior staffer Rayna Song about founding a production company during the pandemic. The Monthly staff shares their thoughts on the Oscars Best Picture nominees, while reporter Yonjoo Seo writes about Demi Lovato’s “Dancing with the Devil…The Art of Starting Over.”