Within the framework of Aram Khachaturian International Festival, “Hover” State Chamber Choir will perform a concert on October 14, which will be conducted by renowned German conductor Florian Helgath. As mentioned by Sona Hovhannisyan, Artistic Director of “Hover”, professor of the Yerevan State Conservatory, Honorary Worker of Art of Armenia, in an interview with Aravot.am, the years of 2016 has turned to be a “German” year for “Hover”. In her words, in late July, they gave two concerts in Germany entitles “Thank you, Germany”, which will be broadcast on November 2 and 3 in the European cities.
“In early September, I was in Leipzig with tenor Liparit Avetisyan and worked with the State Choir of Radio in Leipzig, which is considered to be the best chamber choir in Germany. I was invited as a consultant. It is a very important concert, which was attended by the Turkish Ambassador, the German Chancellor. The concert performed Byzantine, Jewish and Armenian sacred choral works. I was in charge of the Armenian section. Now, Florian Helgath has arrived in Yerevan, with whom we will have a joint concert on October 14, and on October 11, we will have an open rehearsal. These three most important pieces of works were totally funded by the German side,” – said Mrs. Hovhannisyan.
Mrs. Hovhannisyan described Florian Helgath as a very popular conductor in Europe, with whom it is very interesting to work. “The whole concert will be consisted of premieres, except for two works of Komitas. The whole German music will be sounded, ranging from academic to modern authors who are his friends and have composed these works specifically for him. Time was short to prepare everyone because we had other invitations but Florian Helgath is very pleased and had no idea what level of the chorus he is going to work with. And every time, he is calling to Germany to express his positive impressions,” – said the Artistic Director of “Hover” State Chamber Choir. In her words, the choral music was European in nature and if not for these connections, there will be no competition.
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As for the “Hover”, it has traveled to many countries, and one thing is clear, no such a fact of working with the Chamber Choir has been recorded in recent years. According to Sona Hovhannisyan, the repertoire of “Hover” contains many contemporary academic musical works and no other choir performs contemporary music with this number of diversity. Playing the works of the authors of contemporary choral music has a cornerstone importance for “Hover”. By the way, in the beginning of the year, the choir has also performed the works of Armenian young composers up to age 35.
Gohar HAKOBYAN,
Sona Hovhannisyan’s photo from Facebook
