WASHINGTON – The Cadence Ensemble performed in Washington D. C. on May 5 at the Duke Ellington School of Arts under the sponsorship of the Armenians Worldwide Association and under the auspices of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gomidas Vartabed. This video piece by Mirror correspondent Haykaram Nahapetyan includes an excerpt from its performance as well as interviews with Nika Babayan, the general manager of Cadence, as well as audience member Bilal of Pakistan, who has many Armenian friends.
During the first half of the month of May, the Armenian Cadence Ensemble held concerts in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Fresno and Las Vegas. The Cadence Ensemble was formed in February 2004 initially to perform the works of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla. Its first international concert took place in 2005 in Argentina. Ever since then, the Armenian music group has performed in France, Belgium, U.K., Russia, Ukraine, Lebanon, China, Greece, Cyprus, Canada and many other places and participated in international music festivals. In 2014 Cadence participated in the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Sayat Nova in Tbilisi (Georgia) and the Cultural Days of Armenia in Israel.
The Cadence Ensemble was formed by five Armenian instrumentalists: Hakob Jaghatspanyan (guitar), Varazdat Khachumyan (violin), Meruzhan Yeganyan (accordion), Sofi Mikayelyan (piano) and Gurgen Amiryan (contrabass).
