HIGHER MUSIC SCHOOLS OF ASHGABAT AND YEREVAN STARTED MASTER CLASSES IN VIDEO FORMAT

The Turkmen National Conservatory named after Maya Kuliyeva and the Yerevan State Conservatoire named after Komitas conducted a video dialogue with master classes both in academic vocal and piano.

Honored Artist of Armenia, Professor Anna Mayilyan and Dean of the Piano Department of the Yerevan State Conservatoire, Professor Irina Hakobyan shared their experiences with students and young teachers of the Turkmen Conservatoire. The moderator of the music video bridge was a pianist, musicologist, candidate of history of art, associate professor of the Yerevan State Conservatoire Narine Avetisyan.

Students of the Turkmen National Conservatoire opened the vocal master class by presenting to the court of senior Armenian colleagues their performance of the song of the great Armenian composer Komitas “Apricot Tree”, edited by Romanos Melikyan. Such a touching gesture was very warmly received at the Yerevan Conservatoire, and the whole subsequent dialogue took place in the sincere atmosphere of passion and understanding each other people who have something to discuss and share with each other.

Turkmen students also sang Santozzi’s arias from Pietro Mascagni's opera Rural Honor, Tosca from the opera of the same name by Giacomo Puccini, Ninetta’s cavatine from Rossini’s opera The Thieving Magpie. Giving an assessment to young vocalists, the magnificent Armenian singer Anna Mayilyan presented her singing technique, asked to repeat some fragments according to her recommendations, shared with young secrets of professional subtleties.

To the question of the vice-rector of the Turkmen National Conservatoire Baymyrat Gutlymyradov about new methods of teaching vocals, Mayilyan replied that musical pedagogy, like the world, is constantly developing, and of course, fresh techniques and practices come and work out. According to her, in the Yerevan State Conservatoire they mainly use European special literature, are looking for new teaching approaches that, in combination with classical methods, give promising results.

At the end of the vocal master class, another Komitas song “Kakavik” was performed, the performance of which Anna Mayilyan was pleased with. Both parties liked this form of dialogue, and it was decided to continue this communication on a regular basis.

Another master class on the piano was conducted by Professor Irina Hakobyan. She listened to the performance by Turkmen students of the works of Aram Khachaturian, Chopin's etudes, works from Schumann's Carnival, an excerpt from Chopin's Tarantella, commenting on each performance and giving recommendations on the performing technique and its nuances.

As the dean of the piano department of the Yerevan State Conservatoire, Irina Hakobyan spoke briefly about the history of the university, whose mission is to train professional personnel: performers, composers, musicologists, leaders of musical groups, organizers of cultural events and etc.

The head of the piano department of the Turkmen National Conservatoire, People's Artist of Turkmenistan Orazgul Annamuradova also briefly presented the history of the Turkmen music forge, noting that today's event launched a new format of cooperation, and a bridge of friendship in the field of culture was established.

As a sign of the common culture of the two fraternal peoples, it was noted that the Turkmen national instrument, the dutar, and the Armenian canon have much in common. The symbolic end of the piano master class, which began with Aram Khachaturian's Toccats, was The Sounds of the Dutar by prominent Turkmen composer Nury Halmammedov.

This event, organized with the assistance of the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Armenia, was a contribution to the implementation of the intergovernmental programme of cooperation in the field of culture and art for 2018-2020, signed in August 2017, during the official visit of the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Yerevan.