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On the sidelines of the 5th Aram Khachaturian International Festival, the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, headed by conductor Sergey Smbatyan, will present Orca Symphony No. 1 by Armenian-American rock singer and composer Serj Tankian. 

The composition is performed in Armenia for the first time.

The Armenian audience will have a chance to get familiarized with hard rock, alternative metal, art rock, folk rock and the symphony by Serj Tankian. The rock star attended today the rehearsal of his Orca Symphony.

“They are playing very well, correctly. I was very excited. There was a need for a few clarifications, which are always made by composers,” Tankian told the reporters, following today’s rehearsal.

Earlier the renowned rock singer noted it is an honor for him to have the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia play his Symphony Orca at the Khachaturian International Festival.

Orca Symphony No. 1 was recorded in October 2012, in Linz, Austria.  The symphony was released on June 25, 2013 as an album.

The musician said that he had written Orca Symphony as a way of talking about humanity, by comparing the orca – the human whale to the people. The four acts of the composition go through the lifespan of the orca.

“The first movement is called Victorious Orcinus and it basically presents the life of the killer whale, how it is able to be victorious animal, how it is able to kill and achieve all the things possible in a physical manner on this planet.

In the second act, the orca decides to go underwater into the deep state of meditation and self-realization. Between the second and third movements the killer whale realizes that it itself is a dolphin. We call it killer whale but the actual species of the mammal, of the orca is a form of dolphin. Amusing the killer whale and dolphin as a good and bad version of humanity, I am trying to say that we are both good and bad, that we all have color and darkness within us. And it is a voluntary task to go toward the light and to be hopeful in life.

The last and final act of Orca is called the Lamentation of the Beached. It is when the orca or we could say the humanity realizes that our life on this planet is limited not just by our own age and physical existence, but by the age of the planet itself and what we have done to the planet. It’s a huge self-realization.” Tankian described his symphony.