Evening of Art and Food Raises Funds for YerazArt

Afeyan spoke about the track record of the artists supported by the organization, who have achieved a high level of success internationally. Among those are Narek Arutyunyan, a young clarinetist who graduated from the Juilliard School, and Diana Adamyan, a young violinist who has won several competitions and has been selected to participate in the International Menuhin Competition in April.

Afeyan said that the organization has given grants and scholarships to many young musicians and that since 2006, it has supported more than 100 artists so that “young musicians grow up and become very accomplished. There are several who hold PhDs now both abroad and in Armenia.”

She noted that the group now wants to focus on musicians playing wind and brass instruments. “There are no students, no teachers and even the National Philharmonic has European players” for those instruments, she said.

“We also pay stipends to teachers so that they teach year-round,” Afeyan said. “And we donate the instruments. They are no less expensive in Armenia than here,” with instruments costing between $2,000 and $5,000. “We donate the instruments to the schools and they are dedicated to a promising young artist,” Afeyan said. Once the student leaves, they cannot take the instrument with them.

Many of the instruments were more than 50 years old and in rough shape, she said.

Festekjian thanked the local artists who had donated artwork for the silent auction: Levon Gyulkhasyan, Tamara Wolfson, Hagop Keledjian, Karine Makartichian and Sirarpi Heghinian Walzer.