Category: 2022

by Mitch Hurst • 

Sisters Marta (left) and Ani Aznavoorian, the Aznavoorian Duo, recently released “Gems from Armenia,” a collection of compositions highlighting their Armenian heritage.

Music was perpetually in the air at home for Ani and Marta Aznavoorian, who grew up in Barrington with strong musical influences from their father, Peter. Third generation Armenians, the two sisters and their brother, Marty, learned to play instruments early on. While Marty, with his father’s urging, landed on the violin, a staple of Armenian music and culture, Marta took to the piano and Ani the cello.

Though Marty ended up studying medicine instead of pursuing a career in music, both Ani and Marta have established themselves as top musicians in classical music. Marta is one third of the acclaimed, North Shore-based Lincoln Trio and, along with other projects, is currently Artist in Residence at the Music Institute of Chicago. Ani is principal cellist in Camerata Pacifica, a California-based chamber ensemble that plays in intimate venues between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Both have traveled the world performing separately and together as the Aznavoorian duo.

It wasn’t until the pandemic that the two sisters were given the opportunity to achieve one of their dreams—recording a musical tribute to their Armenian roots. With traveling and live performing suspended, the two were able to get together in Chicago last August to record “Gems from Armenia,” which includes interpretations for piano and cello of some historically important works by Armenian composers.

“When you’re Armenian-American, you’re very immersed, very close to your Armenian traditions. We were raised very close to Armenian traditions with the food and the music,” Marta Aznavoorian says. “We went to an Armenian Church and to Armenian picnics and events. There’s quite a large Armenian diaspora here in Chicago, and the community stays very tight.”

Marta says she and Ani always knew they would record an album of Armenian music; it was just a matter of timing. The recording was released on Friday, April 15, by Cedille Records, the nonprofit label dedicated to supporting Chicago classical musicians.

“Gems from Armenia” is a sort of survey of old and new composers, in chronological order, and somewhat serendipitously includes a new composition by American composer Peter Boyer—who has written hundreds of compositions for film and for orchestras around the world. The recording has a distinctively melancholy feel, which reflects the struggles of the Armenian people throughout its history.

“The CD is in three sections. The first section is the original Armenian music from Komitas Vartabed, a priest and arranger. He arranged thousands of Armenian folk melodies and he really gave us the flavor of Armenian music as we know it today,” Marta says “It’s really that minor modal, melancholy sound that comes from him. Then we move into late-19th Century, early-20th-Century, composers from the Soviet Union like Aram Khachaturian.”

The recording finishes with more modern works by Armenian composers, some of whom are still alive, and closes with the work from Peter Boyer.

“You have all these Armenian names and suddenly you have this American composer Peter Boyer who is very well-known for his American sound,” Marta says. “We wanted him to write something for us with his American flavor, but we wanted him to integrate an Armenian folk melody into it.”

The Boyer composition, titled “Ararat,” is an ode to the disputed region of Armenia that includes the mountain mentioned in the Bible that some historians believe to be where Noah’s ark landed after the flood. Though it now—disputedly—resides within the borders of Turkey, it is considered a national symbol for Armenians.

“We just really felt that we needed to represent not just our Armenian Heritage but our American side,” Marta says. “We are essentially American-Armenian, so we really wanted something to integrate the two.”

For Ani Aznavoorian, it was also important for the first recording by the Aznavoorian Duo to capture their Armenian heritage.

“This is our first album as a duo, so we wanted to present ourselves in the most personal way possible,” Ani says. “We could have recorded all Beethoven sonatas or something like that, but for this first album we really wanted to make it from our hearts.”

Ani says so much of the music they recorded was what they heard during their childhood in church and at concerts and events. Her and Marta’s family was heavily involved in the Armenian cultural scene in the Chicago area.

“We’ve heard of lot of these melodies from our childhood, and it feels like it’s in our blood,” Ani says. “The core of the album are these Komitas pieces—he was known as the grandfather of Armenian music—and all of the composers since Komitas kept that Armenian flavor.”

Perhaps no event has influenced Armenian culture and music as the Armenian genocide during World War II. It can be heard in the compositions on “Gems from Armenia.” There’s a sadness in the compositions but a beauty also, reflective of the strength of the Armenian people.

“The genocide unfortunately defines our history,” Marta says. “We are a very resilient people, and we can adapt in a lot of different ways to survive in many different situations.”

“Gems from Armenia” is available now on streaming services and online music retailers, including cedillerecords.com.

https://jwcdaily.com/2022/04/20/hymns-from-the-homeland/ 

Armenia and Russia are working on plans to conduct trade in their own currencies, rather than dollars, to mitigate the effects of international sanctions against Russia for its attack on Ukraine.

Armenia already has begun paying for its Russian natural gas imports in rubles.

“The issue of a ruble-dram swap is under discussion, as a result of which we will have rubles to pay for imports from Russia, and Russian banks will be able to provide their clients with drams at the market rate,” Economy Minister Vahan Kerobyan told Eurasianet. He did not offer a specific date when that might happen.

Russia is the top consumer of Armenian exports, buying $850 million worth in 2021 – or about 27 percent of the total. That includes 98 percent of Armenian agricultural exports, largely fruits and vegetables, according to the Economy Ministry, and 78 percent of hard liquor exports, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

But despite that, Armenia still runs roughly a billion-dollar trade deficit with Russia, where Armenia sources almost all the gas it uses for heating and electricity generation, and 99 percent of wheat imports. Because these commodities are generally priced on international markets in dollars, switching to rubles could protect Armenia from exchange-rate volatility, such as when the ruble lost roughly half its value for a period after the Ukraine invasion. 

The ruble bounced back after Moscow imposed capital controls and intervened heavily, rendering the Russian currency non-convertible and the Kremlin eager for anyone to accept it abroad. While Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was visiting Moscow this week, both President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin pushed for trade to be conducted in the ruble and dram: “In the context of the illegal sanctions imposed on Russia by unfriendly countries, it is important to increase the use of national currencies in bilateral trade and boost industrial cooperation,” Mishustin told Pashinyan on April 20. 

The Ukraine war will hurt economies throughout the former Soviet Union and Armenia’s is no exception. The World Bank cut its 2022 growth forecast for Armenia on April 11 from 5.3 percent before the war to 1.2 percent, arguing that a protracted conflict in Ukraine could push the figure lower still. 

Even so, independent experts in Armenia see a logic behind the use of rubles, since the economies are already so closely tied through exchange and the remittances of the large Armenian population working in Russia. These factors define the Armenian economy and even with expectations that the Russian market will shrink and migrant laborers will lose jobs, the arrangement will not change overnight. 

“It is beneficial for Armenia to pay for Russian goods in rubles, since our country receives a lot of money in rubles from Russia through tourism channels and private money transfers from Armenian migrants working in Russia,” Haykaz Fanyan, an economist in Yerevan, told Eurasianet. “In addition, settlements in national currencies will help avoid transaction costs when exchanging currency. And these are big numbers when it comes to multi-million-dollar deals.”

Because the ruble trade is two-way, there is little worry about a major impact on the dram, said Karen Zakarian, director of Finarm Association of Financial Market Participants, an industry group. “If Armenia receives a mass of rubles, but pays for Russian goods with them, then there is nothing to worry about. Here the state or the Central Bank will not interfere. They would intervene only if the flow of the ruble to Armenia was one-way,” Zakarian told Eurasianet.

Using rubles does not help Armenia avoid fallout from Russia’s economic slump, however. Sanctions on Russia were quickly felt in Armenia, which was forced to raise its baseline interest rate by 125 points to 9.25 percent last month. 

“As the ruble fell, we started facing big problems. We signed contracts with Russian colleagues in Russian rubles and now we find ourselves in a difficult situation, we are going to receive depreciated money,” said Yeghishe Karapetyan, a businessman in Yerevan who exports dried fruits to Russia. 

A move toward using the ruble will also make Armenia even more dependent on Russia as an import partner, said Atom Margaryan, head of the Laboratory for Innovative and Institutional Studies at the Armenian State University of Economics.  

“Exports from Armenia are not threatened. Raw materials mined in Armenia are exported largely to China and European countries, and agricultural products to Russia,” Margaryan told Eurasianet. “As for the import of goods to Armenia, there may be redistributions in favor of Russia. Armenian importers may prefer similar Russian goods, since trading in rubles or in the national currency reduces transaction costs.”

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded with an ‘agreement’ concerning issues related to Nagorno-Karabakh, though details on the specifics remain scant.

‘We have reached an agreement with President Putin on a number of important issues, including the security of Nagorno-Karabakh, the unblocking of regional infrastructure and demarcation of Armenia and Azerbaijan’s borders’, Pashinyan told Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the Russian Parliament, in a televised meeting on Wednesday.

According to the document, both Putin and Pashinyan ‘stress the need for a quick solution to urgent humanitarian issues’ as well as the ‘political and diplomatic settlement’ of the conflict.

The two leaders also agreed to ‘accelerate’ the formation of a commission aimed at coordinating the demarcation and delimitation of the state borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan by the end of April — according to an agreement reached by Aliyev and Pashinyan in Brussels earlier in the month.

The agreements signed also committed the two countries, in largely non-specific terms, to intensify trilateral cooperation between Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan. Putin and Pashinyan also signed a number of bilateral agreements that concerned ‘cooperation’ in the fields of energy, culture, and education, among others.

The heads of the Armenian and Russian security councils, Armen Grigoryan, and Nikolay Patrushev, respectively, signed an agreement concerning information security, which included the ‘exchange of data in order to identify, prevent, suppress, and investigate offences related to using information and communication technologies for terrorist and other criminal purposes’.

https://oc-media.org/few-details-on-nagorno-karabakh-agreement-between-putin-and-pashinyan/

Rossiya Airlines (Aeroflot Group) will start operating regular direct flights from Moscow to Yerevan, the capital of the Republic of Armenia. The flights will be carried out from the capital’s Sheremetyevo Airport on a daily basis and will replace Aeroflot flights in this direction.

Direct flights of “Rossiya” Moscow – Yerevan are a convenient and quick way to visit hospitable Armenia. This is an actual direction of the air carrier’s route network for the development of both business and tourism. The city of Yerevan, located in the Ararat Valley, is rich in its history and unique culture and traditionally attracts travelers. The status of one of the most important business and economic centers of the Transcaucasus allows us to speak about the high demand for the route for business trips.

The air carrier will operate on the Moscow-Yerevan-Moscow route modern and comfortable Russian-made Superjet 100 aircraft, presented in a two-class layout. The total number of seats on board is 87, of which 12 are business class and 75 are economy class. Flights to Yerevan are possible thanks to the transfer of Superjet 100 aircraft of the Rossiya airline.

Rossiya also operates regular direct flights to Yerevan from Sochi on a daily basis. They are part of a new large-scale flight program of the carrier from Sochi abroad on domestic Superjet 100.

Rossiya Airlines (Aeroflot Group) has launched a large-scale flight program from Sochi International Airport.

The Temple-Tifereth Israel will host a Yom Hashoah commemoration service at 6 p.m. April 22 at The Temple at 26000 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood.

The service will also commemorate the Armenian genocide and The Temple will welcome the Rev. Father Hratch Sargsyan of St. Gregory of Narek Armenian Church in Richmond Heights to co-officiate the service.

This is the third time The Temple has welcomed the Armenian community for a special Shabbat service. The service will also include music appropriate for the occasion as those who perished in the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide are remembered, according to a news release. In addition, several Holocaust survivors will be present to light six candles representing the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust.

The penultimate artist in our Who Is series for Eurovision 2022 is Rosa Linn from Armenia.

Roza Kostandyan, also known as Rosa Linn, was born on 28th November 2000 in Vanadzor, Armenia. Rosa began playing the piano at the age of six, and at 13, she took part in Armenia’s Junior Eurovision selection show with her song “Gitem“.

Her professional music career took off in 2020 with her collaboration with Nvak Collective, a US-based record label. A year later she released her debut single “King”. In March 2022, it was announced that Rosa Linn had been internally selected by Armenian broadcaster AMPTV to represent the country at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, Italy.

Rosa Linn will sing “Snap” in 17th position in the first semi-final on 10th May.

Armenia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 and has participated every year since, excluding 2012 and 2021. Armenia’s best results came in 2008 and 2014 when they finished 4th in the final. They have failed to qualify for the final on three occasions. The first time was in 2011 when Emmy finished in 12th with “Boom Boom”, she was 1 point away from qualifying for the final. In 2019, Srbuk finished 16th in her semi-final with “Walking Out”, bringing Armenia their worst result to date in the contest.