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The 12th Aram Khachaturian International Competition will be held in Yerevan from June 6 to 14, 2016. Competition in the category of "Conducting" aims at representing and supporting the promotion of young conductors. Aram Khachaturian International Competition is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions.

Yuri Davtyan (RA National Artist), Mark Hildrew (Great Britain), David Whelton (Great Britain), Michalis Economou (Greece), Thomas Yaksic (Brazil/Chile), Constantine Orbelian (USA) and Vag Papian (Israel/Armenia) are among the Jury of the competition.

Conductor Michalis Economou told Panorama.am that Aram Khachaturian International Competition is a highly important event for the world music community. “Young musicians get a chance to participate and win a prize which may change their whole career. For many years Khachaturian Competition has been held in various specialities, and it is really a professional and important event”.

According to the conductor, a quite great selection of works is featured in the program. “Those are world’s classical masterpieces of Haydn, Beethoven, as well as 20th century composers Brahms and Tchaikovsky, and of course of great Aram Khachaturian, which will allow us to judge and identify the best qualities of the participants”.

Speaking about the tendency in development of conducting, Economou emphasized that year by year conducting becomes more competitive.

“There are excellent schools and teacher in the world, master classes, competitions are held. Nowadays, becoming a conductor isn’t so easy. Musicians are our greatest critics, and in many cases they are the ones deciding our future. It’s a profession demanding perfection in every aspect and doesn’t forgive any mistake,” the conductor confesses.

Speaking about Aram Khachaturian, Michalis Economou said that being a violinist he was very excited as a child to discover Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto. “I’ve performed it several times, afterwards I’ve conducted Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto. Khachaturian is one of the best composers in music history. He managed to interweave the best qualities of ethnic and national Eastern music putting them in Western forms”.

The project is being implemented thanks to joint efforts of RA Ministry of Culture, “Aram Khachaturian-competition” Cultural Foundation and Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. It is held under the high patronage of First Lady Mrs. Rita Sargsyan, who is honorary president of the Board of Trustees of the competition.