WATERTOWN, Mass.--Heading west on Mt. Auburn Street from Cambridge, the scenery undergoes a subtle change. Shops and commercial property remain in full view, but buildings don't obscure the sky and parking lots separate the stores.

This neighboring city has a more traditional character than Cambridge's. There are no young people with purple hair in-line skating near the T station in Watertown Square. In fact, there is no T station--the bus is the best way to get here.

Instead, greeting a visitor is a group of about 30 smiling children exiting a church, excited about the choir practice they have just attended.

"It's interesting. We learn new songs every week," says Meri Galstian, 12, a first soprano.

The youngsters are members of the St. James Armenian Church Junior Choir and Chorus, a group that began in late 1995 and has already received worldwide attention, according to Artur H. Veranian, the choir's maestro and the church's artistic director.

The group performed last October in St. Vartan's Cathedral Church in New York as part of a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of American church choruses, he says.

"The Archbishop of Jerusalem invited three junior choruses from the East Coast," Veranian explains with pride. "They knew of our good reputation."

Other people affiliated with the chorus say that it is instrumental in keeping the community's traditions alive.

"We don't want [the next generation] to forget everything," says Barbara Young, a volunteer who supervises the choral practices. "If they're surrounded by the songs and the liturgy then they'll get used to it."

Young says that members of the senior chorus are in their 50s and 60s so it is important to teach young people the songs of the Armenian Church. The children sing classic European music as well.

"You want your kids to know what Armenian is all about," says Susana Harutunian, mother of three chorus members. "All my kids are singing here."

Sustaining Traditions

Organizations like the St. James Armenian Church on Mt. Auburn Street bear witness to the cultural diversity that the Armenian community has brought to Watertown.

Many Armenians who escaped the 1915 genocidal massacre by Ottoman Turks first settled in Lebanon and Iran and then emigrated to the greater Boston area in the 1970s and '80s when civil wars erupted in those countries.

The Massis Bakery and Specialty Food Store on Mt. Auburn Street, established in 1977, is one of the many bakeries here that have emerged to serve the influx of Armenian-Americans.

The baked and canned goods sold in the store are labeled in both English and Armenian, and bear such titles as "Jajekhi," "Tabouleh" and "Baba Ganouj."