AGBU’s Musical Armenia Program Launches Young Artists’ Careers
ARTS | AUGUST 29, 2013 10:50 AM
NEW YORK – In just one year, the AGBU Musical Armenia Program (MAP),
which was launched last summer to connect talented young artists with
their cultural heritage, has given participants even more: career
opportunities.
With MAP’s support, Shaghig Amy Kazandjian, a recent college graduate
from Canada and a French horn player, has landed a spot in the Yerevan
State Opera and Ballet orchestra. The contract will keep Kazandjian in
Yerevan through the upcoming fall season, where she’s building on the
weeks of intensive training that all MAP participants enjoyed.
Kazandjian, who joined the Yerevan State Opera and Ballet in two
summer concerts, wasn’t the only MAP student to take the public stage
in Armenia during the program, which ran from July 15 to August 4.
Percussionist and composer Andrea Godoshian, who hails from Michigan,
played alongside celebrated jazz musician Armen `Chico’ Tutunjian and
his band in a live show-and each of MAP’s seven participants have
their sights set on performing in the 2014 Renaissance International
Music Festival in Gumri after receiving a personal invitation from the
festival’s director, pianist Karine Avdalyan.
Avdalyan was one of the many renowned artists with whom the students
met as they practiced playing the French horn, harp, percussions,
viola, violin and singing and composing. Several performers taught
back-to-back MAP seminars, including mezzo-soprano Anna Mayilyan and
music historians Gagik Ginosyan, Mher Navoyan, Araxy Saryan and Arthur
Shakhnazaryan. Each offered instrumental and vocal lessons in addition
to lectures, which spanned genres and years, such as those on
19th-century Armenian classical music, Armenian jazz and folk music,
medieval spiritual music and 18th century Armenian minstrel music. For
the MAP artists, who call Bulgaria, Canada and the United States home,
it was an experience they could only find in Armenia.
When the MAP participants weren’t training with professionals, they
were collaborating with some of Armenia’s youngest artists. On a
special trip to the Talin Music School with members of the global
group El Sistema Armenia, they joined students in an interactive class
focused on Komitas’ work. The MAP students themselves were following
in the footsteps of the legendary musician, who travelled across the
country gathering and recording different songs and before leaving
they gave a joint concert with the school’s youth. AGBU Performing
Arts Department Artistic Director Hayk Arsenyan commented on the
significance of the visit, stating, `During the time we spent at the
Talin school, we got to the heart of the MAP mission: to bring
Armenians from around the world closer to the country’s culture and
arts. Watching the students collaborate, it became clear we
accomplished that goal. They were inspired by everything they learned
from the children of Talin and are sure to take the experience with
them when they return home and move forward in their careers.’
If the trip to Talin introduced the MAP group to Armenia’s future
generation of artists, museums tours helped them better understand the
country’s musical history. MAP brought the students to the
house-museums of cultural icons Aram Khachaturian, Sergei Paradjanov,
Alexander Spendiarian and Hovhannes Tumanyan for an intimate look at
their lives and work. At Yerevan’s Charentz Museum of Literature and
Art, where PAD Director Arsenyan led a lecture on Armenian composers
of the Ottoman Empire, they also had the opportunity to see firsthand
the manuscripts and instruments owned by Armenia’s earliest musicians,
including Sayat Nova and Jivani. MAP participant Stephan Atamian of
New York commented, `I realized throughout the summer that some of the
only documentation we have of our musical heritage is archived in
Armenia’s wonderful museums. At the same time, I realized that it is
up to us Armenian artists to bring those pieces to life as only music
can.’
At the final MAP gala concert on Sunday, August 4, in the salon of
Khachaturian’s house-museum, the participants gave new life to pieces
that dated from as early as the fourth century. They also showcased
their own work. Before an audience of tourists and fellow musicians,
the entire MAP ensemble, together with their instructors, performed an
original piece composed by student Andrea Godoshian especially for the
event. It was one of the highlights of an evening that was made
complete when student and vocalist Eliz Gagosian joined Mayilyan’s a
cappella trio.
The final gala concert marked the end of a summer of learning and
creating. But for the students, it was only the beginning. As Shaghig
Kazandjian shared, `Through MAP, I was able to discover Armenia and
embrace my culture, history and identity in ways I never could have
imagined. I learned so much about my musical heritage and I can’t wait
to continue to immerse myself in Armenian music in the months to come.
I’m so excited to join the orchestra of the Yerevan State Opera and
Ballet, a once in a lifetime opportunity that I know I will look back
on years from now as one of the highlights of my career-thanks to
AGBU.’
– See more at:
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2013/08/29/agbus-musical-armenia-program-launches-young-artists-careers/#sthash.9orZyJvh.dpuf