Playing Khachaturian in Armenia!

Posted by Maxim Lando, on Jul 28, 2013

OK, this was incredible!!! I just came back from a trip to Yerevan, Armenia, where I had the opportunity to play Khachaturian’s trio for piano, clarinet and violin. I played on the Talalyan Brothers Festival, which is honored in Armenian classical life as one of the most prestigious cultural events.

You know Khachaturian is Armenia’s most beloved composer, so you can imagine what it felt like to play his music (which I really LOVE) in his own homeland!

What can I say. Yerevan was beautiful. There were outside cafes everywhere filled with people even at 1:00 in morning. Everything seemed so alive all the time. Every night there was an amazing fountain display in the center of town that actually danced to orchestral music. The food was fantastic! Every single vegetable tasted so good, and the spices were perfection. One unusual thing was the Georgian lemonade that I tried at a Georgian restaurant –it was green, and kind of tasted like mouthwash (but it was still delicious and so was the rest of the meal).

I was even asked to appear on two Armenian TV shows! Below are two videos of the shows. The first is a morning television talk show where I was interviewed (parts of it are in Armenian, Russian and English). The second is a news show that talks about the concert series I played on and interviews several of the performers (including me).