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A special concert will take place on March 5 at the Jerusalem Theatre. The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of internationally acclaimed Estonian violinist cum conductor Andres Mustonen, will perform a program dedicated to the commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, The Jerusalem Post reports.

The JSO, in collaboration with the music festival Perspectives in Yerevan (Armenia), will perform music written by the foremost Armenian composers, as well as Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony.

Veteran Armenian composer Stepan Rostomyan, the initiator of the concert, explains that the performance in Jerusalem is the first in a series of international concerts.

“The Centennial of the Armenian Genocide will be noted by remarkable concerts all over the world,” he says. “Two dozen renowned musicians will give memorial concerts in the world’s most prestigious concert halls through a series of concerts under the title “With you, Armenia,” which will start in Israel. Further venues include St. John Church in Tallinn; the Beaux Arts Palace in Brussels; the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg; Carnegie Hall in New York; Santa Cecilia Hall in Rome; Cadogan Hall in London; and Musikverein Hall in Vienna. The roster of top-class musicians includes the Belgium National and La Scala philharmonic orchestras; the Royal Philharmonic and Mariinsky symphony orchestras; Camerata Salzburg; conductors Valery Gergiev, Pinchas Zukerman, George Pehlivanian and John Axelrod; and soloists Evgeny Kissin, Maxim Vengerov, Mischa Maisky, Julian Rachlin and Sergei Nakariakov.”

In regard to the Armenian Genocide, Rostomyan says that this tragic page in his people’s history is a wound that every Armenian bears in his/her heart.

“This was not only the loss of human lives but also of our cities, which are now in Turkey, and of our cultural monuments that were destroyed,” he says.

He stresses, “I have nothing against the Turkish people; I have musician friends in Turkey. But the world – and Turkey in particular on the governmental level – has to accept the fact that this terrible thing happened at all. Otherwise, it can be repeated – and that is the fear that every Armenian feels.”

The program features the following pieces: Komitas’s Fragments from Liturgy (arranged for violin and orchestra by Andres Mustonen); Rostomyan’s Fourth Symphony; Adagio from the ballet Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.”