On June 7, Armenian music lovers listened to performances of classical music with the accompaniment of the exceptional Armenian duduk during a concert entitled “The Duduk and World Classics” that included performances by the Municipal Chamber Orchestra of Kaluga (Russian Federation) led by Honored Artist of the Russian Federation of Armenian origin Garry Azatov and by Honored Artist of the Republic of Armenia, dudukist Ashot Ghazaryan’s dudukists’ ensemble of the Culture Home of Kaluga. The concert was organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora and was held at the Komitas Chamber Music Hall in Yerevan.

During the warm evening in June, the audience witnessed performances of the works of Rol Lovland, Claude-Michel Chemberg, Johan Sebastian Bach, Georgi Sviridov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Aram Khachaturian, Arno Babajanyan and Alexander Spendiaryan with the accompaniment of the enchanting duduk. There were also touching performances of music from Khachaturian’s “Gayane” ballet, as well as a part from Babajanyan’s “Nocturne” and the “Henzel” part from Spendiaryan’s opera “Diamond”.

Garry Azatov has several compositions, the most significant of which are the “Prince Bador” composed on the basis of the performance entitled “Lamp of Aladdin”, as well as 4-part suites devoted to the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide with the topic devoted to the Jews.

The great performances by soloist of the Music Home of Kaluga, recipient of international awards Yelena Shumayeva were a pleasant surprise for the Armenian audience, but the most touching performance was that of Komitas’s song “Krunk”.

The audience enjoyed the spiritual music and the performances by the national orchestra, and evidence of that were the endless rounds of applause and the “Bravo”-s.

The Armenians’ two talented compatriots and Russia’s chamber orchestra wonderfully presented classical songs with the accompaniment of the duduk, and this was new in the history of music. Over the past couple of years, the duduk has been included in many songs, and the sounds of the duduk add charm to world music and the soundtracks of different movies.

Today, thanks to devoted individuals like Ashot Ghazaryan and Garry Azatov, Armenian culture is not only properly presented to foreigners, but is developing through them and their performances.

The event ended with a speech by RA Deputy Minister of Diaspora Serzh Srapionyan, who mentioned that the event was made possible thanks to RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan’s initiative and expressed gratitude to the minister, the Municipal Orchestra of Kaluga and its directors. The deputy minister also mentioned that the concert would live on in the memories of everyone in the audience. By the decree of RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, Ashot Ghazaryan was granted the Gold Medal of the RA Ministry of Diaspora, and Garry Azatov’s orchestra was granted a letter of gratitude of the ministry.