The concert planned to be held at St. John’s Smith Square is dedicated to the Centennial of the Genocide
Under the initiative of the “Art Gallery” cultural foundation, St. John’s Smith Square will host subsequent concert of “Armenia’s Talents” on February 21. In the conversation with “Aravot”, Director of “Art Gallery” Cultural Foundation Mariam Shahinyan (in the photo) reminded that they present to the London audience for the 7th time. The invitation was again received from Chairman of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Local Committee in Great Britain (HAAF GB) Armineh Carapeti, and the Armenian Embassy to London joined the initiative. In 2007, Mariam Shahinyan’s “Young Talents of Armenia” project, which presented talented musicians not only from Yerevan but also from the regions, 5 years later was renamed “Armenia’s talents.” Herewith, the world-famous Armenian musicians not only from Armenia but also abroad performed their talents. Mariam Shahinyan tells the last year’s concert included pianist Vahan Martirosyan, mezzo soprano Juliet Galstyan from Switzerland, an opera solo singer from Armenia and tenor Liparit Avetisyan. As for this year’s concert, which is dedicated to the Centennial of the Genocide, according to the organizer’s words, will be interesting again in term of the program and the participants – works by Armenian and Western European composers will be performed. “The concert will present pianist Armen Aghajanyan, an opera singer-soprano Lilit Soghomonyan, an Opera House soloist Liparit Avetisyan and a Swiss-resident mezzo soprano Varduhi Khachatryan. Our musicians will perform not only to Armenian audience, but also to different nationalities’ London audience.
To the point, the 800-seat auditorium of St John’s Smith Square is always full. Already, more than 40 musicians have been presented under this program, ranging from 11-12 years of age. Many of them after returning to their homeland have had success, winning in various competitions and have played on the best world stages,” says our interlocutor. Programs like “Art Gallery” Cultural Foundation, “National Gallery”, Return festivals and “Young Talents” have their own distinct ideology and it would remain as an ideology if we had not seen the outcome and it would not be followed by other programs. For example, the Return festival returned our talented musicians, and after this festival, many musicians already come up with many different programs,” said Ms. Shahinyan.
She informed that this year in May, the “National Gallery” as traditionally will come up with a surprise, as for the Return Festival that failed in 20014 due to financial problems, according to the founder, “It may take place this year and our main sponsor “VivaCell-MTS” will respond because the project is submitted. We also want to dedicate it to the Genocide Centennial, we are still in the process of waiting. As for the “National Gallery” festival, I must also say that the Ministry of Culture has approved the funding and it is included in the series of cultural programs”. The Chairman of “Art Gallery” cultural foundation considers the growth in the number of festivals in Armenia positive, as in her words, a quality is born in the result of the competition.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
