ALEXANDER SPENDIARIAN’S 135th AND A.SPENDIARIAN MUSIC SCHOOL’S 75th ANNIVERSARIES TO BE MARKED IN EARLY APRIL

Noyan Tapan
Mar 29 2006

YEREVAN, MARCH 29, NOYAN TAPAN. A number of jubilee events will be
organized in coming days on the occasion of the 135th anniversary of
great composer Alexander Spendiarian and 75th anniversary of Yerevan
music school named after him. As school Director Samvel Sahakian
informed at the March 29 press conference, the events will start on
March 31 and will be completed on April 13.

The music school pupils together with the Armenian State Chamber
Orchestra will have concerts at the Aram Khachatrian concert hall and
A.Spendiarian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. It was
mentioned that Yerevan Mayor’s Office has allocated 2 mln drams (4.4
thousand USD) for the purpose of holding these events. Currently more
than 500 pupils attend A.Spendiarian music school that formerly had
more than 5000 leavers. Arno Babajanian, Edvard Mirzoyan, Alexander
Haroutiunian, Edgar Hovhannisian, Ghazaros Sarian and others are
among the leavers of this school. According to S.Sahakian, today the
country’s music schools are in a sad condition. As he mentioned,
they received a sufficient amount of financing from the state in
the Soviet years, while today these sums are miserable. Therefore,
the number of both the teachers and the pupils has reduced. It
was also mentioned that these schools haven’t been repaired and
heated for more than 30 years, as a result of which the musical
instruments spoil. “The amounts of dotations given by the state to
the comprehensive schools are gradually increasing but they almost
don’t involve music schools. Therefore, we should either raise the
payment for studies or make reductions. However, in both cases we
will have great losses,” S.Sahakian mentioned.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress