Master classes in video format connect the Ashgabat and Yerevan Conservatoires
A video dialogue with academic vocal and piano master classes was held between the Turkmen National Conservatory named after Mai Kulieva and the Yerevan State Conservatory (YSC) named after Komitas.
Anna Mailyan, Professor, Honored Artist of Armenia, and Irina Akopyan, Professor, Piano Faculty Dean, shared their experiences with students and young teachers of the Turkmen Conservatory. Narine Avetisyan, a pianist, musicologist, candidate of art history, associate professor of the YSC, was the moderator of the music video-bridge.
Students of the Turkmen National Conservatory opened the vocal master class by presenting to the court of senior Armenian colleagues their performance of the “Apricot Tree” song by the great Armenian composer Komitas, song was edited by Romanos Melikyan. Such a touching music message was warmly welcomed by the Yerevan Conservatory representatives, and the whole subsequent dialogue took place in the sincere atmosphere of passionately keen and understanding each other people, who have something to discuss and share with each other.
Turkmen students also performed Santozzi’s aria from opera Rural Honor by Pietro Mascagni, Tosca’s aria from opera of the same name by Giacomo Puccini, and Ninetta’s cavatina from La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) opera by Gioachino Rossini. Giving an assessment to young vocalists, the prominent Armenian singer Anna Mayilyan presented her singing technique, asked to repeat some fragments according to her recommendations, and shared some professional secrets with young singers.
Answering the question of the vice-rector of the Turkmen National Conservatory Baymurad Gutlymuradov about new methods of teaching vocals, Mayilyan said that musical pedagogy, like the world, is constantly developing, and of course, new techniques and practices are mastered. According to her, in the YSC, the European special literature is mainly used, and new teaching approaches are looked for, which, in combination with classical methods, give promising results.
At the end of the vocal master class, another song “Kakavik” by Komitas was performed, and Anna Mayilyan was pleased a lot with its performance. Both parties liked this form of dialogue, and it was agreed to continue contacts on regular basis.
Another master class - on piano - was conducted by Professor Irina Akopyan. She listened to the performance by Turkmen students of the works by Aram Khachaturian, etude by Chopin, pieces from Carnival by Schumann, an excerpt from Tarantella by Chopin, giving comments upon each performance and recommendations on the song’s technique and its nuances.
Being the Piano Faculty Dean of the Yerevan State Conservatory, Irina Akopyan spoke briefly about the history of the university, whose mission is to train professional personnel: performers, composers, musicologists, leaders of musical groups, managers of cultural events, etc.
Orazgul Annamuradova, Head of Piano Department, Turkmen National Conservatory, People’s Artist of Turkmenistan, also briefly introduced the Turkmen music forge, its history, having noted 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 musical instruments – the Turkmen dutar and the Armenian canon – have much in common. The Sounds of Dutar by outstanding Turkmen composer Nury Halmammedov has symbolically completed the piano master class, which was opened by performance of Toccata by Aram Khachaturian.
This event, organized with the support of the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Armenia, was a contribution to the implementation of the Intergovernmental Program of Cooperation in the field of culture and art for 2018-2020, signed in August 2017, during the official visit of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov to Yerevan.
