Only ten days ago, Maria Nemtsova and Vitaly Vatulya returned to Moscow from the North-Caucasian Tour. Within this Tour, they visited the regions of the Russian Federation in the North Caucases, including Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia – Alania that suffered greatly from the terrorism in the 90-es and South Ossetia, unrecognized state, which was the theater of operations during the conflict with Georgia in 2008. For the week in North Caucasia, Alisa Lyubarskaya, the Belarusian cellist working in London at “The Soloists of Covent Garden” orchestra, joined the Project. Young musicians and musical teachers, who came to the master classes, as well as all the audience, were very enthusiastic about the fact, that they could meet and listen to the musicians who are recognized in the best venues of the World. In Tskhinval, the capital of unrecognized South Ossetia, the concert of “MUSIC FOR PEACE” has become the event of the national importance, attended by the Minister of Culture of the Republic Mrs. Madina Ostaeva. Another town on the rout of Maria and Vitaly was especially important for them – it was Beslan in the North Ossetia, the place of the terrible act of terrorism in 2004 when over three hundreds schoolchildren were captured and killed by the terrorists in the building of the local secondary school. The charitable concert that Maria and Vitaly gave in this town in 2010 actually initiated the MUSIC FOR PEACE Project. Beslan was the last point of the North-Caucasian Tour of Maria, Vitaly and Alisa.
The last Monday, 3.02, the new Tour started. Actually it’s the 2nd part of the Caucasian Tour, which could be called Transcaucasian – during the coming decade the MUSIC FOR PEACE soloists will visit Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh (unrecognized state between Armenia and Azerbaijan) and Georgia. For this tour the Project team will grow and include three outstanding saxophone players: Dmitry Uvarov (Russia, lives and works in Paris), Evgeny Novikov (Russia, lives and works in Amsterdam) and Juan Manuel Dominguez (Argentine, lives and works in Amsterdam), as well as the Khachaturyan Trio from Yerevan. People in Armenia still remember the aftermath of the terrible earthquake of 1985, also the cultural life of this country suffered greatly from the breakdown of the USSR. The voyage of the MUSIC FOR PEACE team to Armenia started on Monday with the press conference in the memorial house of Aram Khachaturian. After that, musicians gave concert and master classes in the city of Echmiadzin, which is one of the most ancient Armenian cultural centers and the residence of the Catholicos of all Armenians who granted an audience to the musicians. The next two days the team of MUSIC FOR PEACE stays in Yerevan, which is proud of the musical traditions that are carefully kept by the enthusiast teachers, in spite of all the problems. In the Armenian capital the MUSIC FOR PEACE team are going to give master classes for the students of the Spendiarov Music School and the Special Boarding School #13 for the needy children. On Feb, 4 will take place the concert of MUSIC FOR PEACE soloists in the House of Chamber Music. On this concert, Artur Kocharyan, the Project Winner of the 1st Project Season, will join the musicians team.
The next point on MUSIC FOR PEACE Transcaucasian rout will be Nagorno-Karabakh, which is still the conflict area: the entrance to the territory of this unrecognized state is limited for foreigners, and the Azerbaijan boarder is an actual firing zone. But even in such conditions the music education in Karabakh is alive. This is the native land of the Winner of the MUSIC FOR PEACE Second Season Anaith Arushanjan. She is going to join MUSIC FOR PEACE team on their concert in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, on Feb, 6 at the local Youth and Cultural Center.
After that, the musicians will travel to Georgia. This county took part in the series of conflicts in the 90-es and 2000-es, and the political situation here is still unstable, in spite of the relative economic prosperity. Its capital Tbilisi is one of the major cultural and educational centers in the Caucasian Cluster. The soloists of MUSIC FOR PEACE will perform at the Chamber Hall of the Tbilisi Conservatoire on Feb, 8, and the next day will give master classes in the same place. After Tbilisi, the reduced number of the soloists (Evgeny Novikov and Juan Manuel Dominguez will part for Amsterdam on Feb, 10) will visit Kutaisi (10.02) and Batumi (11.02) together with the Project Winner of the 1st Season Salome Jordania (piano) and the Project Winner of the 2nd Season Tinatin Bakhtadze. MUSIC FOR PEACE is at the height of its III Season, and we wish the musicians to have enough energy to perform and to bring peace to the people of all the regions they are going to visit!