MIDEM musical festival opens in Cannes

The MIDEM musical festival has opened in Cannes, France.

June 5 to 8, this French city will be filled with Armenian music. Armenia is participating in the festival as an honored guest.

At a press conference at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Armenia’s Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan presented the program of Armenia’s participation in the festival.

“It was important for us to be present at this festival as an honored guest. I think you all know that this year is symbolic for Armenia. We are commemorating the Armenian Genocide. This is an opportunity to recall our tragedy and demand recognition and condemnation of last century’s first genocide. It is a question of principle for us to be present here and introduce ourselves to the world not as a victim, but as strong and talented Armenians that survived genocide and revived,” Ms Poghosyan said.

“The purpose of our participation is to show the audience and experts Armenian voices,” Ruben Tonikyan, Director of the ProArt company said as he presented the program.

Armenia is presenting its concept “Armenian elements of music” at the festival. The pomegranate with four different colors representing earth, air, water and fire is the symbol of the festival.

“This year is a special year for us – a year marking the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. We have formulated certain symbols for this year. There are four of them: our memory, gratitude to our supporters, international struggle for admission of the Armenian Genocide by the perpetrator-state and, finally, the concept of revival. I think this concept of revival is the slogan of our participation in the MIDEM festival. We are displaying our musical culture, which has been preserved and re-created since the Armenian Genocide. We marching toward the future with this culture,” Ms Poghosyan said.

“We are living in a country where we feel the government’s support. We have a State Youth Orchestra, which means we have young musicians and our government is supporting them,” Sergey Smbatyan, Art Director of the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, told the reporters.

Cannes, which is hosting numerous tourists, is adorned with the colors of the Armenian national flag, with billboards reading ‘Armenia is an honored country’ in the streets. The front billboard of the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès is dedicated to Armenia.

Armenia is participating in the MIDEM festival with the sponsorship of the State Commission for Coordination for Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide centenary, Armenia’s Ministry of Culture and Tashir Group company.

Different Armenian compositions – classical music, jazz, rock – will be performed at concert halls and on open-air stages. Lectures will be delivered on Armenian culture and Armenian folk instruments, composer Komitas, as well as on compositions by world-famous composers who were inspired by Armenia.

The jazz band Katuner (Cats), Acoustic Colors quartet, ‘Mikael Voskanyan & friends’ ethnic jazz band, Dorians rock band, and Ambassador traditional music group will perform at the opening evening at the InterContinental Carlton Cannes.

The Hover state chamber choir will give a concert at the Evangelical Church in Cannes, on June 6.

The State Youth Orchestra of Armenia will give a concert with the well-known cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan’s participation at the Debussy hall, on June 7.

MIDEM will pay tribute to the great Armenian composer Komitas on the 80th anniversary of his death.

The InterContinental Carlton Cannes hotel will host an exhibition of paintings by Tigran Dzitoghtsyan and designer Vahan Khachatryan.

Armenian cuisine will be presented at the festival as well.