YEREVAN / REIMS, France – Patrick Radelet is a French singer, pianist and composer. He studied singing at the Paris Conservatory, where he was awarded a first prize. He has been a baritone with the Radio France Choir (Paris) since 1991, where he has sung as a soloist under the direction of many renowned conductors. Outside of Radio France, he also sings as a soloist in numerous oratorios, as well as in recitals. He participates in concerts as a pianist (accompaniment of singers and chamber music) and regularly collaborates with the German Bärenreiter publishing house in making piano-chant arrangements of orchestral scores of operas.
Dear Patrick, your concert “For you, Artsakh,” on April 25 at the Aram Khachatryan House Museum in Yerevan with your daughter, cellist Mathilde Radelet, was quite memorable, not only because you presented only Armenian songs and music, but also because we discovered talented musicians. I would like to thank you for your moral support to Artsakh, but also for your high-quality art! How would you describe this concert?
I will leave it to all those who attended the concert to talk about what they heard. I can only tell you what it means to me, that is, my desire to interpret Armenian music, my desire to express my support and total solidarity with all the Armenian people, my desire for communion with them, a communion that I felt very well during the two concerts in Yerevan and in Kapan. This concert is also the culmination of all that I have undertaken since November 2020 and the crystallization of my love for Armenia, its people and its culture.
Kapan is a border town that does not usually receive guest artists, although it has great artistic traditions. How did you decide to go there?
I also wanted to do this concert in Kapan for two essential reasons. The first one is my will to bring my support to the whole Syunik, seriously threatened in the same way as Artsakh. Kapan is the most important city of this region of Armenia, so it is an important symbol, and its geographical position very close to Artsakh is an additional one in my eyes. Moreover, during my first trip to Armenia with my family in August 2022, we came to Kapan to visit my friend Mari Khachatryan’s family. At that time, I promised them to come and sing there.
The concert was very well received by the large audience (about 400 people). We went to Kapan by road, the Yerevan-Kapan test flight had taken place just two days before, so the connection was not yet open. But it is a pleasure to drive this road, to cross villages and to admire the very varied landscapes that Armenia offers.
