By George Chakhalian
“Aravot” has already written about “Generation of Independence” Pan-Armenian Orchestra and Chorus Project.
Below is an interview with the Project Director, Founding Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia Sergey Smbatyan.
– Maestro Smbatyan, please tell us about the idea of this project.
– The idea for this megaproject have emerged the last year, it is to show what talented young people we have in our young 25 year-old state which is the bearer of high spiritual values such as classical music, and which itself may establish such values, living and creating in our independent Motherland. We are proud of our past, but we need to show on this great holiday that we have also a young generation which is creating the country’s present today, and tomorrow it will create its future.
– In total, how many performers involved in the orchestra and choir?
– There will be about 800 musicians at the stage which is an unprecedented number.
It is symbolic that the celebration of the main holiday of our country, especially of a jubilee, by performance of classical music clearly shows which values prevail in our country …
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-As far as we know, musicians from different Marzes (regions) of Armenia participate in the Project…
– We have young performers from all the regions of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), and the main criterion for selection was the quality of the play.
There is one more very important thing: within these Pan-national orchestra and choir, we want to consolidate these talented young people from all the regions of our country around the classical music, and, of course, contacts with them will be ongoing ones after the festive concert on 21 September as well. The strategic goal of this Project is to identify level of young musicians from Armenia and Artsakh, to raise that level of performance through master classes as well as involvement of talented performers in various national and international programs in the coming years.
The youngest musician is nine years old, the oldest is thirty.
Musicians of the independence generation are those who have begun to receive music education already in independent Armenia.
– Perhaps it was quite a laborious task, – to bring such a huge number of performers in Yerevan, provide housing, organize everything …
– Frankly, after the convention of the 24/04 Orchestra last year, for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire 1915 (which (the project) was an unprecedented event for Armenia) our team thought that it could not be more complex things than this project. .. But this time we are dealing with the Armenian talents, each of which is a bright personality (Maestro Smbatyan smiling), and we should add to this the fact that they all live in different Marzes of Armenia… Frankly speaking, it was not very easy to consolidate all of them, but because our team is confident in the success of this very important project, we will be able to do everything to implement it perfectly.
– How many days rehearsals will last?
-We started rehearsing on August 21 – exactly one month before the Independence Day, rehearsals will go on for several days more, after which the musicians among who there are many mere 10-11-12-year-old kids who have not played in the orchestra, will have their own rehearsing in order to resume rehearsals September 15 and to successfully complete their preparations for the concert.
– The concert has been officially included in the Armenia’s Independence 25th Anniversary festive events list by the Armenian government which means that your project has been convincing for the officials …
– Our concert will be the main event of the anniversary celebrations …
I think that anybody who is more or less familiar with our culture and history, is able to understand that the musical notes for an Armenian child have been having for centuries no lesser significance than the letters of our ancient and legendary alphabet… So it is no mere accident that in Soviet times Armenia was the leader by the number of music schools in.
I will say more: the people having skepticism to this megaproject have no place in the Armenian society …
– What is the concert program, and how much the concert will last?
– We will perform works by the Armenian composers exclusively – Khachatourian, Harutyunyan, Baghdasaryan, Smbatyan. The concert will last about one and a half hour.
***
This author spoke with several participants of the Project.
10-year-old trumpet player Arsen Safaryan from Stepanakert came to Yerevan with his first music teacher, his grandfather Albert Safaryan, a trumpeter.
As Safaryan eleder said, they were very proud of the fact that Arsen has been selected to participate in this Project. He also said that for the performance of the unofficial anthem of the Karabakh movement, – “The Call” with the orchestra, his grandson was awarded a trumpet by NKR Minister of Culture Narine Aghbalyan with which he participates in the project.
Hasmik Mkrtchyan, 13 and Anna Adalyan, 16, harpists from Gyumri have not played in an orchestra before this Project. The atmosphere in this huge band they called “excellent” and stressed that it has been a great pride for them to take part in the concert dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Armenia’s independence.
Photos by the author
