As a composer, pianist, and winner of international competitions, Arpine Kalinina organizes a variety of notable cross-cultural projects. In 2015, she initiated and has since been executing the British and Armenian Music Bridge project, a cultural exchange through which talented British composers have written music based on Armenian poetry (by Avetik Isahakyan, Vahan Teryan, Misak Metsarents, Yeghishe Charents, and Vahan Davtyan). Arpine continues to expand her intercultural activities.
Recently, at the invitation of the German-Armenian Diocese, she visited Germany for the ‘German and Armenian Music Bridge’ concert at the Domforum hall next to Cologne Cathedral, performing with the wonderful German-based soprano Anush Nazaryan.
Left to right: Father Yeghishe, Arpine Kalinina, Bishop Serovpé Isakhanyan, Anush Nazaryan.
– Please tell us about this cross-cultural concert and your collaboration with Anush Nazaryan.
Soprano Anush Nazaryan is the choirmaster of the ‘Komitas’ choir of the Armenian Diocese in Germany. I have known Anush since my teenage years. We have collaborated closely for many years, starting from our studies at the Yerevan State Conservatory until 2010, before Anush moved to Germany. It is worth noting that she was the first and unparalleled performer of my vocal compositions during those years, and working with her greatly enriched me as a composer and pianist. I must mention that I wrote many pieces specifically for Anush’s enchanting voice, including the composition Impatience of the Heart (based on Stefan Zweig’s novel Beware of Pity), which was my graduation work at the Conservatory. Anush was also the soloist of the ‘Kantegh’ ensemble of Armenian classical music, which I founded during my time at the Conservatory and where I served as artistic director. Together, we performed numerous concerts, including a series of 25 concert-lectures on Komitas.
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It was truly moving to perform on the same stage with Anush after a 14-year interval. We shared a program of Armenian and German classical music, featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Komitas, and Romanos Melikyan, along with some of my own compositions.
As a unique Armenian-German cultural bridge, the program also included Komitas’ song Come, O Night!, inspired by the German poet Julius Sturm, and Romanos Melikyan’s famous romance The Rose, with text by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Additionally, we performed my romance Di bist wie eine Blume (‘Like the Lotus of the Mountains’), specifically composed for this concert, based on Heinrich Heine’s poem (beautifully translated by the Armenian poet Vahan Teryan). I wrote this piece for my mother, as it is one of her favorite poems by Heine. This romance serves as a prayer to God, asking for His protection over all mothers. Continuing the theme of prayer, after the concert, I made a pilgrimage to the Dresden Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery) to see Raphael’s Sistine Madonna, the reproduction of which I have had at home and seen every day since my childhood. It held profound symbolic meaning for me.
We also performed Bach-Gounod’s prayer to the Virgin Mary, Ave Maria. We are deeply grateful to the Armenian Diocese in Germany and to Primate Bishop Serovpé Isakhanyan for inviting and organizing this beautiful concert, which renewed our long-standing collaboration with Anush.
– This year was also fruitful, filled with your pedagogical achievements. You teach composition at several specialized music schools in Yerevan, and one of your students won first prize at the Edward Mirzoyan Young Composers Competition this May.
I teach at the Sayat Nova Music School, the Tigran Chukhajyan Music School, the Paronyan Music School, and the Avet Terteryan Art School in Yerevan, and I’m happy to have the largest composition class. This year, I held three concerts featuring my composition students—two at the Aram Khachaturian House-Museum and one at the Martiros Sarian House-Museum. My students—Artashes Mosikyan, Hayk Julhakyan, Grigor Khachaturian, Arthur Grigoryan, Liana Mazmanyan, Natali Yeghiazaryan, Narek Daniel Shubin, Serob Goroyan, Hrachya Ghazaryan, and Aram Tadevosyan—from various music schools each showcased their own compositions. In the most recent concert, titled Colors of Nature, held at the Sarian House-Museum, my students presented works inspired by nature. I am delighted to have such talented students, many of whom are active participants in music festivals and composition competitions, including multiple and triple award winners of the Edward Mirzoyan Young Composers Competition in Yerevan. This year, my student Hayk Julhakyan won first prize in the junior category of the Competition with his two compositions, Spring Magic (a piano cycle) and Distant Fields (a romance for voice and piano).
In one of my interviews with Aravot daily, I shared that after the 2020 Artsakh war, I began teaching composition more extensively, finding hope in the bright young talents of our children. I am truly happy to help them uncover their God-given gifts. I hope that, regardless of the professional paths they choose, composition and creative work will guide my students to become good people, develop independent thinking, and become valuable professionals for their homeland.
Aravot daily
