A concert dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Chamber Choir of Armenia & The Hover Chamber Choir will be held on August 8 2015 within the 2015 Beiteddine Festival Program Maestro Eduard Topchjan will be conducting the orchestra and the program will include A. Khachaturian: Spartacus Ballet Suites, J. Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major by with the exceptional participation , of Sergey Khachatryan, violin and W.A Mozart: Requiem in D minor .
The event is being organized with the support of AGBU and is sponsored by the Emirates Lebanon Bank.
About Beiteddine Art Festival
The Beiteddine Festival is one of the leading festivals in the Middle East. It takes place in a large and magnificent 200-year old Palace in the Chouf Mountains, in Lebanon. The Palace is a jewel of Lebanese architecture with its many courtyards, monumental gates, elegant arcades and leveled galleries.
Each year, in the months of July and August, the Festival presents outstanding performances by world famous stars and Lebanese artists.
Concurrent with the performances, the Palace houses one or more international art exhibits.
The Festival’s first edition was launched in the summer of 1985 amidst the war. It came as an act of faith in Lebanon’s cultural role and power of creativity, a call for normality amidst the chaos and madness of war. It was born and has grown in very difficult times and made it against all odds. As of 1987, when Nora Joumblat and an Executive Committee took over the organization of the Festival, it gradually gained regional and international recognition. Since 1997, a new step forward is recorded: the external courtyard of the Palace is fitted to host 5,000 persons. On the creative level, the Festival started producing its own performances, particularly Lebanese plays. The variety and the quality of the Festival’s activities attract an ever-increasing audience (51,000 persons in 2003) in which the young generation is worthily represented The Festival is a non-profit organization. Its growth from a local venture to its current status as an international event is due to 2 main factors:
- An increasingly loyal public
- The support of sponsors and partners.
65% of the Festival’s budget comes from ticket sales and 20% from sponsors and a symbolic governmental aid of 15%.
Every summer, around 50,000 spectators gather in the Palace’s spectacular courtyards to attend different performances.
The Beiteddine Festival has presented an impressive variety of artists.
About the Conductor
Eduard Topchjan is the principal conductor and artistic director of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Topchjan studied violin at the Yerevan Komitas Conservatory and went on to study conducting with Armenian conductor Ohan Durian followed by consultations from Sir George Solti, Claudio Abbado and Nello Santi.
Topchjan started conducting in 1991 when with a group of his friends from the Yerevan Komitas Conservatory he created the Serenade Chamber Orchestra, later known as the Armenian Chamber Players. The group has performed at over 1000 concerts in Europe, winning prizes at various international competitions and releasing CDs on the Thorofon label.
Eduard Topchjan made his debut with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000, when an orchestra composed of the Serenade Chamber Orchestra musicians and a group of leading APO musicians had an appearance at Bad Fussing Festival,Germany. The same year he was appointed as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the APO and started appearances with the APO in Yerevan and abroad, interpreting the main symphonic repertoire as well as new compositions.
In 2001, he appeared with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and in 2003, at the Bolshoi Theater.
In autumn 2006 the APO led by Eduard Topchjan participated in the 41st International Music Festival Moravian Autumn held in Brno, Czech Republic and continued the tour visiting also Prague, Bratislava and Nuremberg (Germany).
In February 2007 the APO with Maestro Topchjan toured France and appeared in Nice, St. Etienne, Lyon, Valance, Marseille,Issy les Moulineaux, which was the culmination of the Year of Armenia in France.
In 2008 the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra led by Eduard Topchjan made a very successful tour over Japan with 15 concerts in the best concert halls in Tokyo, Osaka, Niigata, Nagoya, Hamamatsu and many others.
Topchjan is especially known for introducing music to both the orchestral and operatic repertoire. He has performed with this orchestra the operas Aïda, The Barber of Seville; Il Tabarro, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Simone Boccanegra, Rigoletto, I Pagliacci and others.
Eduard Topchjan has appeared with such artists as Steven Isserlis, David Geringas, Renato Bruson, Kim Kashkashian, Alexei Lubimov, Emmanuel Pahud, Bernd Glemser, Tibor Varga, François-Joël Thiollier, Bernard Ringeissen, Zoran Todorovich, Mischa Maisky, Boris Berezovsky, Sergey Khachatryan, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Sergei Babayan, Sahan Arzruni,Julia Fischer, Wolfgang Meyer, Sergey Larin, Hasmik Papian, Vladimir Chernov, Sergei Nakariakov, Catherine Manoukian,Placido Domingo, Pinchas Zukerman, Konstantin Lifschitz, Francois-Frederic Guy, Vag Papian, Mario Brunello, Kirill Gerstein, Kolya Blacher and many others.
As a guest conductor he appeared with many orchestras in Europe, among them the Frankfurt Opera, the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Romanian TV and Radio Orchestra, the Pasadena Symphony and Kärntner Sinfonieorchester.
He was Artistic Director of several festivals. Since 2007 he has been the principal conductor at the Yerevan International Music Festival, which is an annual event and hosts numerous world-known musicians.
His vast repertoire includes all epochs from baroque to contemporary music, symphonic works as well as the chamber orchestra repertoire and operas. Several pieces by composers from Armenia and abroad have been written for him and world premiered by him and his orchestras. In 2007 the Ministry of Culture of Armenia awarded him with Meritorious Worker of Art title. In 2011 he was awarded a Gold Medal of the Ministry of Culture of Armenia.
In Autumn 2013 Maestro Topchjan was befitted with knighthood being awarded the Italian Order of Merit for Labour.
