Honored Artist of Armenia Nune Yesayan, who performed in a concert on Gyumri’s Vardanants Square, spoke about how she was invited to perform but denied the payment she was offered at the Number 1 Music School. She was offered 950,000 AMD and used that money to buy musical instruments for the 100-year-old school.
“Gyumri is the city of my childhood. I have been here many times. I have many relatives and friends here. When I was a child, I came here every summer for a vacation.” She said that she was unable to come after the 1988 earthquake because one of her friends had died, which made her too sad to return.
But when she started to perform in Gyumri, all of her concerts were for charity. “That’s how it’s supposed to be. I believe that all artists who come here should do so simply to perform, not to make money. When I was invited to perform for Gyumri Day, I said yes, and that it couldn’t be any other way. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I said that I didn’t need any money and I would come anyways, but the municipality told me that they had set aside money for me. I told them to do whatever they wanted with that money because I didn’t need it, so then it was decided that it would be used to pay for instruments for children to play. I hope that they will become talented musicians who will represent our nation with honor,” Nune Yesayan said.
