Your trusted source

The 150th birth anniversary of the world-famous Armenian composer and music ethnologist Komitas will be a major event, Director at Komitas Museum-institute Nikolay Kostandyan told a press conference on Wednesday. He reminded that every year Komitas International Conference-Festival takes place from 26 September to 8 October as corresponding to Komitas’ birthday according to the New and Old Calendars

Kostandyan informed that this year the museum institute has conducted a new research project in Komitas studies with the support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) this year.

“We managed to conduct research in German and Saxonian archives, revealing new materials related to the life and activity of Komitas. Some of the materials will be used in future research undertakings,” the director at the museum-institute added.

As he informed, the project has been fully funded by DAAD, while the cooperation with the archives and other academic institutions based in Germany had been launched back in 2015

“This year I was able to visit Germany with the support of the German Academic Exchange Service and spent two months conducting research in a Saxonian archive based in Leipzig as well as the local high music school named after Mendelson. The research focused on several topics. We studied letters, and material from individual correspondence. We are happy to inform we are back with new valuable materials. We have brought five letters to Armenia addressed to the composer. The letters are yet to be spelled out and will serve a valuable contribution to complete and form an unbiased, complete opinion of Komitas activity” researcher at the museum-institute Lilit Harutyunyan said.

Chairman at the scientific board at Komitas Museum-Institute Mher Navoyan, in turn, highlighted the importance of the study of archived materials that may open up new perspectives in the research of connections between Komitas-Europe, Komitas-world and Komitas-contemporaries. In his words, the study will thus present a comprehensive and solid factual basis to present Komitas’s legacy to the world.