Diran and Garo Tavitjan: ‘We Represent Macedonia But Respect Our Armenian Roots’

Your father, Garabet Tavitjan, was considered the most acclaimed Balkan drummer. He was a founding member of the greatest Macedonian rock band Leb i Sol and founder of the legendary Garo & the Paramecium band. So it is no wonder his sons Diran and Garo followed in his footsteps.

Garabet was born in Skopje, from the earliest years he was interested in music, as a small child he took piano lessons from his aunt Hermine, and shortly after started playing guitar. A little bit later his primary instrument became drums. He played with every significant musician at that time in Macedonia. His talent and ability were above usual and he was considered prodigy on drums that led him to more serious engagements in music. After playing in the earliest rock and jazz bands in Macedonia, he recorded the very first LPs in the history with Skopje’s festival orchestra. Later he became the founding member of Leb i Sol as composer and performer. His drumming arrangement contributed mostly to the traditional song Aber dojde donke to get them with their first significant award. Afterwards, many awards, concerts and festivals started to come, and they became the greatest rock band in Yugoslavia’s history with more than half a million sold records, more than 13 albums and hundreds of concerts. Our father was awarded as the greatest drummer of Balkans multiple times, and received the St. Kliment Ohridski national award as an artist of national significance. His discography has over 100 albums, over 3000 large stage concerts and hundreds of collaborations with the greatest bands and vocal artist from the Balkan and abroad. He is the first conceptual drummer with solo projects in Balkan region. Garabet is also the first drummer who developed irregular Macedonian rhythms and made them popular in the whole Balkan region, being considered as the founder of the modern rhythm and jazz rock legend of the Balkans.

As we can see, even as a fourth generation Armenian in Macedonia, you have kept your Armenian names. Wasn’t it difficult for your father and you to make a career with non-Macedonian name?

It was not easy. We love Macedonia, it is a beautiful country with amazing people, rich history and modern society, having great acceptance and tolerance. It is similar with Armenia in many points. We are the fourth generation born and raised here and we have learned everything here. Our family took part in making this country a better society and proved itself on the field. We invested our life, resources and heritage in this country. It is kind of natural for any nation to love and favor their artists with the same nationality and surname primarily, and we understand that. It is a unique situation and experience which occurs only to the affected by those circumstances and makes them think about it. That’s why it was a challenge for our father and for us to work twice hard than many others to receive recognition. Everything we did, we did it by ourselves with the support of close friends. We personally believe that in any country the quality and the right people in right places are more important factors in achieving success than the national background itself. People who love and work for the interest of one country are more valuable than those doing nothing productive for the society but just natives of that given country. We are thankful to Macedonia for being our home and to those who loves us and our music which means a lot in supporting us through the years. We represent Macedonia sincerely, while maintaining the highest quality and loyalty we know in doing that, meanwhile respecting our Armenian roots and never forgetting them. We have not known family ties in Armenia after the genocide unfortunately.

What other Armenian traditions you have?

We often celebrate and respect Armenian holidays as Christmas etc, we celebrate Garabet the Forerunner’s day as a name day of our father, Armenian dishes are frequent in our family’s and friends’ menu, we enjoy the music of great Komitas, Khachaturian, Orbelyan, Charles Aznavour, Levon Malkhasyan, Tigran Hamasyan, Arto Tuncboyaciyan and many others. The genocide memorial is an annual meeting held at the church as an opportunity to meet other Armenians.

The Macedonian Armenian community is very small – could you please provide some information?

Macedonian-Armenian community has over 100 members. Very well, respectful community but not so much active and there are not so many relations between the members in everyday life. A number of Macedonians are also our community member – very respectful friends. Armenian genocide memorial day is probably the main event uniting the Armenians annually. There are doctors, surgeons, tourist agency owners, museum curators, intellectuals, economy and law workers and more who are Armenians or half Armenians living in Macedonia.

Armenia is considered as a fan of jazz. Have you ever been there?

Yes, several times. We were invited by Mezzo production and their management who are top professionals and friends – Kamo Movsesyan, Ani Saghoyan and Gaya Poghosyan. We played a several concerts at the Aram Khachaturian philharmonic hall, the Mezzo club, the Cascades etc. We have the opportunity to meet so many great musicians such as the Armenian state jazz big band which is amazing; especially the horn section is unbelievable! The piano legend Levon Malkhasyan, another legendary pianist Vahagn Hayrapetyan, the saxophone virtuoso Armen Hyusnunts, Armen Manukyan – a great man and top music journalist, members of Armenian Navy Band, Gor Sujyan from the Dorians, Karen Mamikonyan, etc, great and friendly reporters at the Armenian First TV Channel, Shant TV, Pan Armenian, etc. They are all amazing professionals and people. It was an amazing experience to see the beauties of our roots, the Ararat Mountain, one of the oldest Christian churches – Holy Echmiadzin, Tsisernakaberd, the Genocide museum memorial, the Matenadaran museum of ancient manuscripts, the beautiful center of Yerevan, Cascade and more. Armenia has a remarkable music and cultural tradition, even the taxi cabs had classical and jazz music on the radio. We cannot wait to go there again!

How was 2019 in your life and what are your plans for 2020?

The year 2019 was a year of great happenings and moments in personal and professional life for us. We are looking forward to new music adventures and goals in 2020, we have planned lots of travels, projects and hope on good health and wish better understanding and positive energy among the people around us and in the world.