STARMUS VI, an international festival of science communication founded by Garik Israelian and Brian May, will be hosting more than 50 speakers, among them Nobel laureates, astronauts, scientists, iconic artists and music stars who will gather this year in Yerevan, Armenia, to enhance and promote science communication.
Co-founder of Queen, musician, singer, songwriter, astrophysicist, and photographer Dr. Brian May has just confirmed his presence in Armenia at the beginning of September, 2022. Best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen and his international hits composed for the band such as “We Will Rock You”, “The Show Must Go On”, “Tie Your Mother Down”, “I Want It All”, “Too much love will kill you”, “Hammer to Fall”, “Save Me” and “Who Wants to Live Forever”. Dr. May is also an astrophysicist and science communicator. In 2020, he was ranked the Greatest Guitarist Of All Time by Total Guitar Magazine.
Although Brian May has played a significant role in Rock Aid Armenia campaign in 1988 when he personally invited many world-class musicians (such as David Gilmour, Tony Iommi) to join the project and to support the country, he himself has never been there.
Dr. Brian May met Dr. Garik Israelian, one of the world’s leading astrophysicists, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Canary Islands, in 1998. Years later Israelian helped May to complete his PhD thesis and earn his PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007.
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The friendship between May and Israelian led to the collaboration with an Armenian duduk legend Jivan Gasparyan. In 2005 they had a once-in-a-lifetime performance together at the 46664 concert in honor of Nelson Mandela held in Tromso, Norway (30min+, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw2mjmW4q3I).
Brian May worked with Montserrat Caballe on a unique version of Queen’s “Is this the world we created” for her album “The Island of Christianity: Armenia & Artsakh”.
In 2011, Brian May and Garik Israelian initiated a unique format of science and art collaboration through which the concept of science popularization gave rise to a fascinating global festival of science communication that brought together the most brilliant minds on the planet. It was aimed to inspire and educate the next generation of explorers and regenerate the spirit of discovery. Since then 5 festivals have been held (In Spain, Norway and Switzerland) and the 6th will be held in Armenia in September, 2022 (starmus.com/Armenia).
The founders also edited 3 Starmus books that include all the lectures and highlights of the first three festivals.
Brian May will be in Armenia for STARMUS VI festival this fall to perform from the main stage. STARMUS VI Armenia will also host world class musicians such as Rick Wakeman, Serj Tankian, band Sons of Apollo, Andrey Makarevich, Tigran Hamasyan.
