FESTIVAL DEL TANGO A YEREVAN

.........
Sulle musiche di Astor Piazzola, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Claude Debussy ..con la partecipazione del famoso fisarmonista francese i Richard Galliano...col patrocinio del Ministero della Cultura

Tango in Yerevan: New festival promises Argentinean rhythms
By Karine Ionesyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Tango lovers in Armenia may enjoy their favorite music and dance as part of a festival initiated this year and hoped to continue in coming years.


The organizers are the Kadans music ensemble that performs music by Argentinean tango composer Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) and other authors as well as the Mezzo Club. The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture.

The festival will stretch throughout the year with a series of concerts featuring not only Armenian, but also noted foreign performers.

The first concert as part of the festival was held on October 30. Kadans members, such as pianist Armen Babakhanyan, guitarist Hakob Jaghatspanyan and others performed with world-famed French accordionist Richard Galliano at the National Opera and Ballet Academic Theater.

Galliano said that any country needs to know Piazzolla, a composer who, he said, gave a new breath, modern rhythms and new meaning to tango that was considered as an old-fashioned music genre until the 1980s.

“Today I created my ‘new musette’, because I feel that we should not play the kind of music they used to play in the 1930s. But we should consider such powerful influences as Astor Piazzolla, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Claude Debussy,” says Galliano.

Galliano was among the first who started to use accordion in jazz. In 1980, at La Comedie Francaise Theater in Paris he performed Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream to his own music.

“Our goal was to make well-known international figures of Argentinean tango available to our public. The festival was taken with great enthusiasm, which shows that we were right to think that such a festival should be held in Armenia,” Mezzo Club director Irina Saribekyan told ArmeniaNow.

Piazzolla became known in Armenia only in recent years due to the Kadans group’s efforts. Then Armenian choreographer Rudolf Kharatian from the United States staged a one-act ballet to Piazzolla’s music. The ballet dancers, Saribekyan says, may also perform during the festival.

Tickets to Tango festival concerts are priced 3,000-15,000 drams ($8-40).

The next concert in the series is planned to be held this month, though the date is not yet specified.


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Tango lovers in Armenia may enjoy their favorite music and dance as part of a festival initiated this year and hoped to continue in coming years.


The organizers are the Kadans music ensemble that performs music by Argentinean tango composer Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) and other authors as well as the Mezzo Club. The festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture.

The festival will stretch throughout the year with a series of concerts featuring not only Armenian, but also noted foreign performers.

The first concert as part of the festival was held on October 30. Kadans members, such as pianist Armen Babakhanyan, guitarist Hakob Jaghatspanyan and others performed with world-famed French accordionist Richard Galliano at the National Opera and Ballet Academic Theater.

Galliano said that any country needs to know Piazzolla, a composer who, he said, gave a new breath, modern rhythms and new meaning to tango that was considered as an old-fashioned music genre until the 1980s.

“Today I created my ‘new musette’, because I feel that we should not play the kind of music they used to play in the 1930s. But we should consider such powerful influences as Astor Piazzolla, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Claude Debussy,” says Galliano.

Galliano was among the first who started to use accordion in jazz. In 1980, at La Comedie Francaise Theater in Paris he performed Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream to his own music.

“Our goal was to make well-known international figures of Argentinean tango available to our public. The festival was taken with great enthusiasm, which shows that we were right to think that such a festival should be held in Armenia,” Mezzo Club director Irina Saribekyan told ArmeniaNow.

Piazzolla became known in Armenia only in recent years due to the Kadans group’s efforts. Then Armenian choreographer Rudolf Kharatian from the United States staged a one-act ballet to Piazzolla’s music. The ballet dancers, Saribekyan says, may also perform during the festival.

Tickets to Tango festival concerts are priced 3,000-15,000 drams ($8-40).

The next concert in the series is planned to be held this month, though the date is not yet specified.

Seta M.