VivaCell-MTS, Ars Lungo duo sum up prolific 2016

PanARMENIAN.Net - The cooperation between VivaCell-MTS and the duo Ars Lungo has been successful as ever in 2016. In the passing year, in the framework of the second part of Anthology of Armenian Chamber Music project the duo has released 4 albums, which feature piano trios of nine Armenian composers. The records cover the rich tradition of Armenian academic music embodied in the works by both composers of the second half of the 20th century such as Grigor Hakhinyan, Andrei Babayev, Arax Matevossyan, and those representing our days, including well-known Mikhayil Kokzhayev, Vache Sharafyan, Simon Hovhannissyan and still-undiscovered talents of the younger generation such as Hayk Melikyan, Davit Balasanyan and Anahit Kostanyan.

Committed to the traditions of dissemination and preservation of Armenian music both in the country and beyond, Ars Lunga has also had numerous concerts at the special events hall of the Casfesjian Center For The Arts performing piano trios of Armenian composers, a joint recital with the Composers’ Union of Armenia dedicated to the jubilee of composer Garegin Grigoryan (whose piano trio upon the initiative of the duo is in the stage of notation and is getting prepared for record), concerts in the framework of the Talalyan Brothers’ Festival, which involved events celebrating the jubilees of Arno Babajanyan, Edvard Mirzoyan and Mikhayil Kokzhayev. The piano trio of the latter was performed live with participation of brilliant violinist of Armenian decent based in Germany Tigran Hakhumyan.

One of the main purposes of the Anthology of Armenian Chamber Music is to involve to a maximum extent the Armenian musicians living abroad. That is the reason the duo cooperates with various violinists while performing and recording the trios; this is to provide opportunity to promote new composers and violinists. At this stage of the project, recordings include performances with violinists Tigran Hakhumyan (Germany), Tigran Maytesyan (Belgium), Sona Azaryan and Ani Karapetyan.

The first part of the project was received with accolades in various sides of the world and has already secured a special place in the phonoteques of the most authoritative higher musical institutions, composers’ unions and radio stations of the CIS, Europe, Far and Middle East, Iran, North and South Americas, and Canada, including the Moscow, Utrecht, New England, Ottawa conservatories, composers’ unions of Moscow and Georgia, Yale, Harvard, California State, Moldova State, Turku State universities, Frankfurt-, Zurich- and Tokyo-based radio stations, Singapore Raffles Music College, Library of Congress and more. Upon completion of the second part the duo plans to make this uniquely encyclopedic collection public.