Hovhannes Karapetyan and Lusine Arakelyan (duet) (Armen Stepanian photo)

Musicians Delight International, Local Audience in Wiesbaden Concert to Benefit Mirak-Weissbach Foundation

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WIESBADEN, Germany — A benefit concert took place here on Sunday, January 12, to raise funds for projects supporting Armenian refugees from Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh). The venue was the Anglican Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury in Hessen’s state capital. More than a benefit concert, it turned out to be an intercultural gathering, bringing together members of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, who shared the beauty of music from Armenia, Europe, and America.

This was the first such benefit concert that the Mirak-Weissbach Foundation, with the sponsorship of the John Mirak Foundation, had organized. Of all the rooms available for such events, we chose the Anglican church, which hosts concerts regularly. Its imposing structure, built in 1865, with high vaulted ceilings, graced by neo-gothic arches mounted on columns along the nave and side aisles, accounts for its excellent acoustics, and a Bechstein concert grand piano, recently refurbished, make it a sought-after location for musicians. In addition, the church, its rector, and parishioners are noted for their inclusiveness and warm hospitality.

Three prominent young Armenian musicians agreed to perform for the concert, soprano Lusine Arakelyan, bass-baritone Hovhannes Karapetyan, and pianist Diana Sahakyan. Both Arakelyan and Karapetyan completed voice training at the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan. She continued her studies at the Berlin University of the Arts, and Bavarian Opera Academy, and has held solo concerts in Armenia and abroad, also appearing in international music festivals.

Lusine Arakelyan (Armen Stepanian photo)

Karapetyan, while still at the Conservatory in Yerevan, sang the title role in student productions of “Don Pasquale” as well as Leporello in “Don Giovanni.” He continued his training at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he performed as Argenio in Händel’s “Imeneo,” Trulove in “The Rake’s Progress” and Figaro in “Le nozze di Figaro.” Among the numerous awards he has received are the special prize at the Tatevik Sazandaryan Singing Competition, second prize at the Nodar Andguladze competition in Tbilisi, and first prize at the Lusine Zakaryan Competition. In the current 2024-2025 season, he is an ensemble member of the Hessen State Theater in Wiesbaden and will debut in the title role of Doctor Bartolo in “The Barber of Seville” in March.

Sahakyan also started her music education in Yerevan and continued in Germany at the Frankfurt University for Music and the Performing Arts and at the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid. She has attended numerous master classes, won awards and is the founder and artistic director of the first Music Festival of Women Composers in Frankfurt. Her recordings of works by Fanny Hensel and Mel Bonis have contributed to acquainting a broader public with the outstanding works of lesser-known women composers.

An Opera Studio for Children

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Rev. Christopher Easthill, rector of St. Augustine’s, welcomed the guests to his church, many of whom were there for the first time, and read greetings for us from the foundation. The program would present works from the European and Armenian opera and classical repertoire, as well as folk and modern music, also from America. The proceeds from the concert are earmarked to support a unique music project, an opera studio for children, which the singer and director Garen Garibyan launched in 2023.

Garibyan, who left his career in the US after Armenia’s independence to establish a music school in Karabakh, was forced twice to flee aggression, in 2020 and again in 2023, ultimately finding refuge in Armenia. Stranded in Nor Hachn, a small village north of Yerevan, he felt desperate. As he recounted in a message to the concert, “I gathered 30 to 35 children there and opened an Opera Studio at the music school and started classes — vocal exercises, selecting soloists, dancers, children’s choir, state sets — everything needed for staging a children’s opera.” He approached a mutual friend in Germany and together we raised funds, and sent him enough to start again from scratch. Garibyan was overwhelmed with gratitude: “And suddenly one morning I woke up and found out that God was sending help from Germany… The Mirak-Weissbach Foundation appeared to me in the form of an angel from Germany. Our music school and I thank you for helping our school.” The project took off in 2024, bringing hope to the young refugee musicians, who performed their first opera locally, in Yerevan, and in other cities.

Intercultural Musical Exchange

The evening opened with two Armenian works, Komitas’s Alagyaz bardzr sarin (On the high mountain Alagyaz) sung by Hovhannes Karapetyan and G. Chechyan’s Aghavniner (Doves) presented by soprano Arakelyan. Both Komitas, venerated musicologist, clergyman, and composer, as well as this piece are familiar to most Armenians, but new to others in the audience.

Hovhannes Karapetyan (Armen Stepanian photo)

For one German, herself an accomplished soprano, the song “swept me away, off through the boundless Armenian landscape, and I wish I could have sung along as well.”

The singers, both trained for the opera stage, then entered their element: Karapetyan followed with Rossini’s Aria by Don Magnifico from “La Cenerentola” and Rachmaninow’s Alekos Cavatina from “Aleko,” and Arakelyan returned with Rusalka’s Aria from Dvorak’s “Rusalka” and Arditi’s “Il Bacio” (The kiss). Both sang with rich, resonant voices, interpreting their roles with spirited character.

Sahakyan, who accompanied the singers, demonstrated her mastery of the keyboard and sensitive interpretation in three solo pieces: Schubert’s Auf dem Wasser zu singen (To sing on the water) in an arrangement by Franz Liszt, Chopin’s Waltz op. 64 Nr. 2 C# minor, and Babadjanyan’s Vagharshapat Dance.

During the short break, guests had a chance to taste the champagne and wine prepared by the parish’s organizing committee, and nods of approval accompanied enthusiastic comments. The brilliance of the vocalists was “remarkable,” said one, to which another rebutted, “And the pianist? Superb!” And, “What interesting music from Armenia!” The particular tonality and harmonies were intriguing, and, as one amateur musician remarked, “Armenian music seems to have a somewhat melancholic mood.”

The performers returned with more opera, but also jazz. Lusine Arakelyan sang Leonora’s Aria from Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” the well-known “Granada” by A. Lara, and Silva’s Song from “Die Csárdasfürstin” (The Csardasz princess) by E. Kálmán. Karapetyan began with Davit Bek‘s Aria from the opera of the same name by A. Tigranyan, then moved to American classics, and with a notable shift in interpretational approach, George Gershwin’s Somebody Loves Me and Some Enchanted Evening from “South Pacific” by R. Rogers. The response from the audience grew from delighted to enthusiastic. For their finale the two sang a duet by R. Amirkhanyan, Karmir tsaghik me garuni (The red flower of spring), whose warm lyrical quality offered a soothing denouement after the robust and dramatic operatic mood of earlier pieces.

Diana Sahakyan and Lusine Arakelyan (Armen Stepanian photo)

Diversity in Universality

The audience was as varied as was the program. In addition to the helpers from the church who managed ticket sales and refreshments, many in the audience were members of the parish, people originally from the UK, or North America, or the Commonwealth countries now living in the Wiesbaden area. The church also hosts services of the Ethiopian Orthodox church and has recently launched a program to help integrate refugees from Ukraine. The concert may have introduced regular parishioners to Armenian music and musicians for the first time.

That was also the case for a second group of visitors made up of local German residents, music lovers who regularly attend concerts there. The leading local newspaper, Wiesbadener Kurier, ran a lottery for the concert, offering two pairs of free tickets to readers who signed up to compete. One of the couples who won, wrote in to express their thanks for the opportunity to enjoy “a wonderful evening with superb artists in a cordial and warm atmosphere.” Another music enthusiast was impressed by the “wonderful, very special concert,” and added, “especially the Armenian songs kept lingering and echoing in my mind.”

The third group of visitors was comprisal of diaspora Armenians from the tri-city Rhine-Main region, Frankfurt, Mainz, and Wiesbaden; members of their large and active local organizations, which also host concerts and dancing, turned out in significant numbers for the evening. Although there are no Armenian churches in their localities, diaspora Armenians from this region do have the opportunity to attend Armenian church services in Mainz and Frankfurt, where certain German churches open their doors once a month to Armenian priests and parishioners, as St. Augustine’s does for the Ethiopian Orthodox. For the Armenian guests this may have been their first visit to the Anglican Church, whose members welcomed them most cordially. One member of the organizing committee sent a note, saying “What an evening! Thank you for inviting your friends into our church,” while another wrote that she “really enjoyed the concert on Sunday and was happy to see that so many people had attended on such a cold evening!”

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