YEREVAN, MARCH 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On the initiative of the RA ministry of culture, the first republican cello music festival dedicated to People's Artist of Armenia, Professor Heronti Talalian will be held in Armenia in the period of March 26 to May 4. The festival director, cellist of the string quartet after Komitas, docent of Yerevan Conservatory Aram Talalian said at the March 24 press conference that the purpose of the festival is assist with improvement of young cellists' mastery. In his words, the cello art has no long history in Armenia: it originated in the 1920s and managed to achieve a high level in a short time. However, many musicians of the middle generation have left Armenia in recent years due to hard material conditions, as a result of which the alternation of generations has not been a smooth one. According to A. Talalian, the festival is of rather educational and instructive importance. It is not in all music schools that cello classes have been kept. For this reason during the festival concerts will be given in those cities and marzes (provinces) where the teaching of cello classes has been retained: in Gyumri, Vanadzor, Kapan, Stepanakert, Abovian, and Charentsavan. Aram Talalian announced that among festival participants ara famous cellists from the UK, Switzerland, Georgia, Iran, Russia and France, including Alexander Chaushian, Aydin Ahmadinejad, Mikael Hakhnazarian, Yovan Markovich and others.

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