'Playing jazz with Garanian' Second Youth Music Festival Festival will pass as maestro George Garanian thought: works for jazz connoisseurs and for untrained listeners will be performed. Works of Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, Count Basie and George Gershwin will be performed by famous musicians and students of music schools of South-West District.

No one from Armenia will take part in the 'Playing Jazz with Garanian' festival. There were no invitations, jazz pianist Levon Malkhasyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. Second Youth Music Festival Playing Jazz with Garanian will be held in the Great Hall of the Meridian Culture and Art Center in Moscow on January 25, Russian media reported.

George Garanian was an Armenian Russian jazz saxophone player, bandleader and composer. He was the People's Artist of Russia in 1993. Born in Moscow, Garanian was one of the first Russian musicians who attracted attention of Western world as part of the jazz from the USSR. He belonged to the first generation of Russian jazzmen who started to perform after World War II. As a musician (alto saxophone), conductor and composer he was the leader of country's best big bands: Melodia (1970s-1980s) and Moscow Big Band (1992–1995). He led the Municipal Big Band in the Southern Russian city of Krasnodar. He died from cardiac arrest in Krasnodar on 11 January 2010 at the age of 75.