“The President Prize has played an important role in my life. I had participated in a number of international competitions prior to that and had always returned home with honour, but when you are being awarded with a prize in your home country, and this is being conferred by the President himself, you get to realize that your work is being appreciated by specialists in your country as well. The prize has made me feel more responsible, in terms that you are obliged to keep your status on a high level, so that no one ever doubts your merits and does not question your play after a concert, for instance”. Anahit Dilbaryan’s, Vigen Harutyunyan’s and Avetik Ghazaryan’s exceptional trio of clarinet, bassoon and piano brought the musicians a President Youth Prize in 2015. The trio was exceptional since a piano trio is normally a violin, cello and piano.
Anahit Dilbaryan had decided that the trio would keep on giving concerts after the competition. However, they haven’t managed yet, since after the competition she formed a family, had children, which forced her to postpone the trio’s activities. According to Anahit, the monetary prize from the President Prize has served a good purpose: “I had not gone for a vacation for so long and was very exhausted, so I made up my mind to spend at least part of the sum on my vacation”.
In answer to my question how they are coping with current situation given the pandemic, Anahit Dilbaryan answered “I do not even remember when was it the last time I left home, I guess I haven’t gone out for 13 days now, not even gone shopping. This helps to conceive new ideas. I have an active collaboration with different children, musicians and orchestras. Now that there is a temporary lockdown, I do conceive excellent ideas for my foundation that we formed together with my Italy-based friend Tariel Bisharyan. It is called “High Art”, a cultural foundation, we are engaged in matters related to teen musicians”.
I asked Anahit whether they have a balcony and whether she manages to overcome the isolation like the Italians do. Sadly, the answer was no. “It’s a pity I cannot do something like this, first we do not have a balcony, secondly, it happened so that the only residents in our block of apartments is us and another family”.
Nowadays it is rare thing when a successful artist teaches at music schools, among them Barsegh Kanachan music school, Ashtarak music school after Artem Ayvazyan, Arno Babajanyan music school, as well as Maluntsyan art school; and what does she get from this? “This is love, I love teaching. There are people who do not like making their secrets explicit, while I do. Teaching is my passion, especially working with kids ages 4-5, I feel happy while working with them. People always ask me if I do not get tired spending so much time with children, as not everyone will eventually become a musician. My answer is that I love them and this is a mutual feeling. In the meanwhile, I do realize that many of them come because of me, not for piano classes, but to me the teaching process is pure happiness”.
Do you manage to give online classes given the quarantine these days? There are many jokes regarding music classes, the teacher asks to play the music, the pupil refuses saying he can’t, as his grandma is sleeping. “Well, I have been conducting online classes for years, I have even had master classes with people living in the US or Europe. I have quite enough experience and online classes are simply another regular class to me, and I do not see any difference. Sometimes there are positive cases; I have a pupil whose young sister likes playing the piano, and whenever we start the class she comes. There was one time when she would not leave, so I ended up spending most of the lesson with her, rather than my pupil”.
Teaching children and assisting them through our foundation has deep motives. Anahit sincerely admitted – “In fact, I have taken a difficult road, not having any relatives or acquaintances who could have assisted me, not having parents who could lead me in my journey, in my case I only had parents who did their best so that I could study in Yerevan. But other than that, I have always faced problems related to the concert venue, being told that I can play at this exact venue since I have “my people” here. There have been numerous cases when I was asked to play at a certain concert, but later I would see that many other people meddled with this and I was left out of the concert. And I realized there will still be many children who would be forced to experience all these, thus we established our foundation, so that those young musicians, children and teens who do not have acquaintances, yet they are talented, can make their way in this industry, and I would be able to have my input in the making of their careers. I do not think that one day there will no longer be biased decisions in this sphere, still I am doing my best to reduce such cases. Unfortunately the more I live, the more I realize that these practice is probably present in all the countries, and it is more vivid in Armenia, as we are a small country”.
Anahit’s mother plays the qanun, a string instrument, while Anahit tries to resemble her father; “My mother is a fragile creature, while my father has always taught me to be strong. I lived in Yerevan together with my mother, while my father lived in Spitak with my sister and brother. Our family had divided into two pieces, and whenever I called my father to complain about the injustice happening to me, asking for a piece of advice, he would always mention – if I am not strong enough for this sphere, then I had better quit, if not, then I should overcome all the difficulties. He has never uttered the words “I can’t”, and I have managed to resemble him in this. It is true, I have had a difficult life, but I have come to realize that there are few things in this world that are not in our hands, well I suppose only a human’s life, while all the rest can be arranged”.
Hripsime Jebejyan
The President Prize to the Republic of Armenia is initiated and funded by the Boghossian Foundation (Belgium-Switzerland). The Award Ceremony is organized by “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund. The prizes are conferred by the RA President and the representatives of the Boghossian Foundation annually.
