The Choir displayed a very nice joint singing, which was the result of the singers' collective efforts. They sang and expressed their love and loyalty to their Syrian Homeland through their songs. Their singing reflected the real image of Syria, and, as the Festival's artistic director, Maestro Missak Baghboudarian said the chorus was a result of a collective work, and the joint singing of the choirs presenting various cities and colors of Syria reflected the coexistence of different cultures existing in Syria.
The Festival took place from Saturday, 25 February to Thursday, March 2, 2017, at "Assad" Culture and Art Center's Opera Hall, in the capital of Syria, Damascus. The sponsor of the Festival was the Syrian Ministry of Culture. It was organized by Assad Culture and Art Center's General Council. Nine choirs from various cities of Syria took part in the Festival.
During the Festival week, the choirs gave separate concerts, after which they concluded the Festival with the joint concert. The joint choir consisted of 250 members.
The Hamazkayin Zvartnots Choir was the only Armenian group participating in the Festival, and its participation in the Festival was very significant. The group, despite the difficult conditions of war in Aleppo, didn’t stop but continued its activities and was invited to Damascus as a 47-year-old acclaimed polyphonic choir.
Zvartnots gave a performance on the last day, Friday, March 2, 2017 at 6: 00 pm, conducted by Gayane Simonyan-Derian, accompanied on piano by Ruzan Barsoumian.
After the long journey from Aleppo to Damascus, the members of Zvartnots relaxed and then performed polyphonic singing first praising the victory of Aleppo singing Arab patriotic songs like Mausui’s Mabrouk Nasrak, Rasasak Halap, Eli Shuer’s Rayatek Pel Ali, Ziat Boutros’s Al Hak Silahi and Selim Masri’s Lemma Pete Yetesenne. Then they performed one of Tatul Altounyan’s finest songs Hoy Nar and a Russian song by Sedoy Moscow Nights. Mabrouk Nasrak concluded the concert.
Senior government officials, MP Dr. Nora Arisian, Hamazkayin Central Executive Board member Garo Manjigian, Hamazkayin Syria Regional Executive Board members, Damascus Armenians, local and foreign spectators attended the concert.
Zvartnots received applause and appreciation for its superb singing.
The final part of the Festival was especially interesting. Festival artistic director, Maestro Missak Baghboudarian, bringing together more than 250 members of local choirs, had made separate working groups. Each group had chosen a sentence, which was rhythmically sung first separately, then all the groups sang together the chosen rhythmic sentences, creating beautiful, and at the same time a vibrant harmony.
This was a new style in choral singing and gave the participating choirs the opportunity to work together.
Then, the choirs together sang two patriotic songs and dedicated them to their Syrian Homeland.
At the end, each chorus was granted a certificate of honor by the organizing body.
Choirmaster Gayane Simonian-Derian received the certificate of honor granted to Hamazkayin Syria Regional Executive Board and presented a silver shield as a gift to the Damascus Culture and Art House on behalf of the Regional Executive Board.
Besides its artistic value, the concert was a kind of message to all parties inciting the Syrian crisis and trying to pervert its image. That message said that Syria was a country of coexisting cultures and mutual tolerance. It will continue to preserve that image by such high quality encouraging performances as well.
Kantsasar