There will be a number of concerts dedicated to the 85th anniversary of Arno Babajanyan starting in the spring. President of the Armenian branch of the “Arno Babajanyan “ fund Ruben Hakobyan presented the list of concerts. The state competition of young pianists was also included in the list. Young musicians from Artsakh will play at the symphonic, chamber and contemporary music concerts dedicated to Babajanyan.
Babajanyan’s childhood friend and composer Alexander Harutyunyan suggested turning the young musicians’ competition into a tradition because by organizing a competition every 3-4 years will help youth grow. The concerts will also be organized in the Marzes.
“There will be concerts in the cities of Artsakh and Armenia where there are the corresponding to instruments to play,” said R. Hakobyan.
The book entitled “Our Arno”, printed by the “Antares” publishing house, and the CD of Arno’s songs will be sold in stores. The enlightened and soulful music of Arno Babajanyan will also be presented in Russia. A symphonic concert will take place in November at the Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky. Russian and Armenian singers will perform at a contemporary music concert which will take place at the Kremlin Congress hall. It is not clear yet as to which singers will sing. According to R. Hakobyan, some of the singers will include Irina Alegrova, Mirey Matyon and others.
The television version of Babajanyan’s concert will be shown on the “Russia” channel. CDs will also be produced in Russia; it is foreseen to include Iosif Kobzon’s interpretations in the disc and the songs performed by young artists in the other. Most probably, there will be concerts in Los Angeles and Paris. Some streets of the cities of Moscow and Doni Rostov will be called the name of the Armenian composer.
Also this year, the composer’s home/museum might be built. According to R. Hakobyan, he had agreed beforehand with the mayor that the municipality had provided the fund with an area near the Paranjanov home/museum.
“Later we found out that they are constructing a road leading to a restaurant there and it all ended there,” he said.
Arno Babajanyan’s house was a two bedroom house on Mashtots street and his inheritances sold it later. You must have the area and money in order to build a home/museum now. According to R. Hakobyan, that costs around one and half million dollars. The main office of the “Arno Babajanyan” fund came up with the idea of creating a home/museum in Yerevan. The main office is in Moscow and the president is Ara Babajanyan, son of the composer.
A concert hall will be opened up in the museum where the composer’s personal items and handwritings will be shown. There is already one interesting sample-a piano on which Arno Babjanyan signed his name with a nail. That piano belonged to the composer’s friend and general of the police department of Russia Edward Magakov who gave the piano to the fund as part of his will. The fund is looking for sponsors who will help organize the concerts. R. Hakobyan claims that 25-30 million drams is needed to organize concerts in Armenia alone.