Armenian chamber choir wins one silver in Riga intn’l contest

The chamber choir Paros (lighthouse) has brought one silver medal from the World Choir Games 2014 contest held in Riga, Latvia from 14 to 19 July.

The choir’s participation in the event became possible due to its title of an international laureate, its artistic director, Raffi Mikaelyan, told the state news agency Armenpress.

“It is our first time in the World Choir Games. This is a well-known contest held biannually. It was last organized in the United States in 2012, but we did not manage to ensure our participation then. And we had been wishing to take part in the [World Choir] Games ever since, so we left for Riga this time,” he said.

Mikaelyan added that the entire choir of 34 had left for the Latvian capital to participate in the music event. “Upon taking the diploma at the end – as we saw and compared the jury evaluations – we noticed that they were very conflicting, ranging from very high to very low. If all the evaluations were similar, we would have won gold in one nomination at least. Never before had the choir performed so well,” he said.

The singers of Paros are now preparing to bring gold from the next competition to be held in 2016.

Paros was founded in 1993 as an adjunct choir of the ICRC Rehabilitation Center in Yerevan. Since inception, its conductor has been Vachagan Navasardyan. Mikaelyan was appointed an artistic director in 2009.

Most of the choir’s members are individuals with limited capacities. Ever since its foundation, Paros has performed many concerts in Yerevan and different regions of Armenia, as well as abroad; it has also released two collections. At world-renowned opera singer Placido Domingo’s concert in Yerevan (2010), the choir had the honor to perform the last two songs with the Spanish tenor.