Almost 45 thousand music lovers from Armenia, Russia, Germany, Malta, UK and many other countries were following the “Music 20” online international festival, held on July 10 through 28 in Armenia. The official website music20.am was created to broadcast the performances throughout the festival days.
Along with local Armenian artists, a large number of celebrated musicians were hosted in Armenia as guest performers of the festival – cellists Alexander Ramm, Boris Andrianov, violinists Andrey Baranov, Francesca Dego, Haik Kazazian, conductors Marius Stravinsky, Rustem Abiazov, Alan Chircop, Gianluca Marciano, pianists Nikita Mndoyants, Alexander Gindin, Gloria Campaner and clarinet Igor Fedorov.
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The festival was organized owing to the joint efforts of the European Foundation for Support of Culture and the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex. The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra was the official orchestra of the festival.
The invited musicians were sharing their emotions on the “Music 20” festival “feeling like a breeze of fresh air amid the limitations of the Covid-19 pandemic, introduced by the organizers and allowing thousands of listeners to savor high-quality music”, as was shared by many of them.
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Rustem Abiazov, the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Kazan “La Primavera” Chamber Orchestra, admits his disbelief that “Music 20” would even be possible to carry out. “Of course, I knew that the President of the European Foundation for Support of Culture, Konstantin Ishkhanov, always achieves the goals he targets. Despite this, I was traveling to Armenia with certain concerns over the possibility to organize something like this under the present conditions. However, I arrived in Yerevan to witness a festival with an unusual format. A large number of orchestras around the world are streaming their concerts online these days, and I am thrilled that Armenia is in leading position in this respect”, Rustem Abiazov said.
Violinist Haik Kazazian emphased that there is no other festival of a similar scale held across the world which demonstrates the big love of Armenia for classical music.
Sergey Smbatyan, the Principal Conductor and the Artistic Director of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra sums up the outcomes of the “Music 20” festival, stating that today highly demanded artists around the world admit to be given a second breath with this initiative presented by Armenia. “For me it is valuable to show the paramount importance of classical music for Armenia. We had brilliant concerts. The Symphony Orchestra overcame challenges with world-scale artists. Remarkably, the events in the cultural life of Armenia have been exposed to the whole world for the past two weeks. Around 45,000 views evidence that what we offer to the global cultural life is highly demanded, meaning that amid the cultural standstill of the world something is being created in Armenia that goes against the flow and works out well”, Sergey Smbatyan said.
All anti-pandemic security measures were ensured during the festival.
Karen Ghazaryan, the Director of the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex, emphasized that under these challenging circumstances we were able to carry out the “Music 20″ festival successfully, with all safety measures in place. “We had a large number of views, and, most importantly, no cases of infection were reported during the festival. This shows that with proper organization and operational responsibility it is possible to hold events that present no threat to public health”, Mr.Ghazaryan noted.
To diversity concert program included 19 symphony and chamber concerts, as well as a series of recitals featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Skryabin, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Grig, Shor, Khachaturian, Ghazaros Saryan, Alexander Arutiunian, Edward Mirzoyan, John Ter-Tadevosian, Stepan Shakaryan, Tigran Mansurian, Eduard Hayrapetyan and other composers.