From 20 to 27 September, the European Foundation for Support of Culture, in cooperation with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, presented the Armenia Music Festival 2019, which was held in the Armenian capital Yerevan for the second time.
The Festival featured concerts by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra at Erevan’s best music halls, including the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall. The performances were conducted by Konrad van Alfen, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Sinfonia Rotterdam Orchestra (the Netherlands), as well as conductor Sergey Smbatyan, Honored Artist of the Republic of Armenia, Artistic Director of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, who also was the Festival’s Art Director.
The Festival’s soloists were the brightest stars of the classic music world, such as the Korean violinist Zia Hyunsu Shin, prizewinner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition; cellist Jonathan Roozeman of Finland, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition; Russian violinist Andrey Baranov, winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition; Georgia’s soprano Anna Kasyan, winner of the Vibrarte International Music Competition in Paris; Russian pianist Nikolay Lugansky, soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic, Honored Artist of Russia, People’s Performer of Russia and Professor at the Moscow State Conservatory; Austria’s Ingolf Wunder, winner of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition; pianist Nareh Arghamanyan (Austria/Armenia), winner of the Montreal International Musical Competition, and many others.
The festival programme consisted of works by distinguished Armenian, Maltese and other composers.