This is a story about formation of a vision on cultural-educational development through music and about its fulfillment. My grand-grandfather Smbat was a folk singer of tales. He lived in Shnogh village, Armenia. In 1937, due to Stalin’s repressions, Smbat was exiled to Siberia and shot yet before arriving there. I heard Smbat’s songs from my grandmother, but I did not pay attention to them. Years later, after learning what folk songs of oral tradition meant and understanding that they were important cultural heritage, I started a project of educational program series at Komitas Museum-Institute being impressed by Smbat’s heritage. The project demonstrated (1) how advantageous the cultural heritage could impact on education of the community and (2) how effective folk music and European art music could be knitted in the purpose of cultural education. From 2015 to now, thousands of participants from Armenia and abroad, mostly young people have been visiting our programs. A number of collaborations with some of the participants emerged.

How does it happen that a way of life is chosen according to learnt information from the ancestors? How can the tens-of-years-old drawers instigate new outlook on people’s further activities? This is a story about formation of a vision on cultural-educational development through music, – from folk to Western. My grand-grandfather Smbat was a folk singer of tales. He knew a huge quantity of folk songs and tales. He lived in Shnogh village, which is a tiny place near Alaverdi town in the Lori Province at the northeastern part of Armenia. This place looks like a small paradise thanks to its landscape and placement; and it’s not surprising that folk singing was too much beloved in the community of this place. As a folk singer, Smbat was well known in entire Alaverdi with surrounding villages. He was an expected guest in each regional or local/family event. Smbat lived a happy time with his family until 1937, which is the year of Stalin repressions. Among myriads of people, Smbat was one to be exiled to Siberia being accused of wealth. He had much possession thanks to his diligence. While he succeeded in agriculture working hard himself, the governors found him “dangerous for the folks”. Though he was expected to be exiled to Siberia, he never arrived there, rather he was shot in a place not far from Armenia. We learnt about his shooting later, in post-Soviet period only, when new opportunities were provided to open some documents in the archives. My grandmother, that is to say Smbat’s daughter was every day telling us about him and was waiting for him until the last days of her life (she passed away in 1998). They say my grand-grandmother had been waiting for him as well. None of them knew he was shot shortly after leaving his place. When I was teenager, yet living in my birth-town Alaverdi, many times I listened my grandmother sing Smbat’s songs. Although we (grandchildren) were very receptive to any kind of music and quickly learnt any song independent on the genre, language and quality, it was difficult for us to learn songs from my grandmother, since she could not sing clearly due to her age. None of us understood that it was authentic traditional Armenian folk music of oral tradition and it should be learnt and saved as an important cultural heritage. Soon I moved to Yerevan for my studies in music. Years of classical Western type music education followed, which led me to qualification of musicologist and choral-conductor and PhD in Art consequently. I specialized in music theory and 20th-21st century Western music. No relation with folk music I intended to have until an occasion, when I visited my grandmother’s uninhabited home in Alaverdi, and there due to my curiosity found some notebooks written by Smbat. I am not going to tell how excited I was and how my hands started trembling. Instead, I should notice that this encounter became a start for new concepts. No music notation the note-books included, but rather the lyrics only. I found three or four texts the melodies of which I recalled as heard from my grandmother. While this was happiness for me, unfortunately none of the remaining lyrics I could enjoy with melodies. This is where I understood how negligent I was while my grandmother was alive. Now I knew the value of the folk songs, but an important component of the heritage was lost. From one side I was disappointed, from the other side I started conceiving a new mission. When staring my job at newly opened Komitas Museum-Institute in Yerevan, I focused on the fact that Komitas was a great music collector and folk music researcher; at the same time, being educated at Humboldt University Berlin, he managed to put Armenian music in European dimension. Thus in my new position I should have the opportunity to touch both folk music and European music. I also met some colleagues whom I shared interest with. Teaching songs to the visitors of the museum through educational programs was one of the activities we started working on devotedly. We elaborated several directions in this and entitled the project “One Thousand and One Songs” following the title of a project by Komitas. One of the directions was a series of educational program on Armenian folk music – wedding songs, working songs, love songs, dance-songs, etc. Another one, which perhaps became the most beloved one and won an international prize, was a series on lullabies targeted for present and future parents. One more series was teaching medieval sacred songs. And one was the series which taught folk songs of not only Armenians, but also that of other nations. The next step was developing an intercultural format of the program. The topics such as “Komitas and Debussy”, “Komitas and Chopin”, “Komitas and Beethoven”, “Komitas and Germany”, “Komitas and France” were developed, which enabled the participants to learn about the given composers/cultures interactively and to learn to sings some samples of their vocal music. We provided the participants with handouts which involved the songs including music scores, lyrics, and dictionary of dialectic or foreign words where necessary. During some of the meetings we not only taught songs, but also suggested to improvise according to them, this way promoting creative thinking of the participants. Step by step we ascertained that our mission of cultural-educational development was being effectively fulfilled. Our project demonstrated (1) how advantageous the cultural heritage could impact on education of the community and (2) how effective folk music and European art music could be knitted in the purpose of cultural education of the community. From 2015 to now, thousands of participants have been visiting our programs to learn to sing folk and classical songs. Various age and social groups are among them, although youth predominates. The program does not require the participants have music education; we help each person to be integrated in the process. Many of them visit periodically trying not to miss any. We are proud of the international format, since we have participants from many countries. Since for non-Armenian visitors language restriction exists, we provide them with music scores which include Latin transliteration and English translation of the Armenian lyrics. Thus our participants’ geographical affiliation does not make restriction for their engagement. Moreover, the project led to new publication series, also entitled “One Thousand and One Songs”, in which Armenian folk songs are published with not only Armenian lyrics, but also their transliteration and translation. Our project continues currently as well involving more and more visitors. As previously, we target both folk and classical music. We enjoy the process and the result. I keep Smtas’s handwritings as relic, because they changed my world. Should I be interested in such kind of activity if I were not Smbat’s heir? Should I start the project if I did not visit my grandmother’s old home? I imagine what contented glance she would have if being nearby. Most of Smbat’s songs unfortunately remain as lyrics only, but it doesn’t matter; the concept is alive… Bigger shortage is that our program is provided in Yerevan only. Meanwhile implementing activities in far places including Shnogh and Alaverdi, remains actual. Hopefully, one day… institute@komitasmuseum.am

Cultural education is emphasized at Komitas Museum-Institute. Indeed the exhibitions are to promote it. At the same time integrating people into the process of performance and helping them to touch music themselves helps much in evolving creativity and team work mentality. Learning about music is common at music schools and colleges, but learning to carry the music itself leads to uncompetitive outcomes. Youth is especially interested in participation; therefore we aim at developing a community consisted of physicians, lawyers, economists, engineers, educators and many other professions, who know what music culture is. In a big number of cases, practical cooperation emerged between the museum-institute and the participants: researchers, designers and dancers from Armenia and abroad are among the collaborators. Thus Armenian folk music heritage training increased into wider format of teaching diverse cultures. Our project demonstrated that the cultural heritage strongly impacts on education of the community; and that folk musics and European art music can be effectively knitted in the purpose of cultural education of the community.