Armenia hosts ‘Contemporary Classics’ Composers’ Festival
Earlier this month composers from around the world descended on Yerevan, Armenia for a new festival of contemporary music.
From 1-9 November, composers including Penderecki, Alexey Shor, Georgs Pelecis, and Sir Karl Jenkins were hosted by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and its principal conductor Sergey Smbatyan. Every evening a concert was dedicated to each composer.
Smbatyan described the festival as ‘an extremely valuable project for the Armenia State Symphony Orchestra and me, as well as for Armenia in general.
‘For an entire week, Armenia has become the cultural centre of contemporary classical music in the world. We had the absolute delight and privilege of hosting these legendary composers in Armenia and having the opportunity of dedicating an entire concert to each of them.’
Both the president and the prime minister of Armenia hosted the festival’s guests, while the minister of education, science, culture and sport paid a visit to the concert hall to join the guests for tea and discussions.
The festival was jointly organised by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, the Armenian Government and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia and the European Foundation for Support of Culture.
‘Moving forward,’ continued Smbatyan, ‘we have high hopes and expectations for this festival. We want it to grow into a unique platform where contemporary composers will get together to present their works to audiences around the world. Moreover, in the future, we want to commission contemporary composers to write music specifically for this festival. And, seeing its success, we believe that this is an attainable goal.’