Sergey Smbatyan and the members of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra

Armenian Symphony Tours Germany

WIESBADEN, Germany — Music lovers in Wiesbaden greeted the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra with enthusiastic applause on November 27, when the renowned ensemble performed the tenth in a series of 15 concerts, on a whirlwind tour through the Federal Republic. Under the baton of conductor Sergey Smbatyan, the orchestra performed a short piece by Alexander Artunian, followed by two works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky for piano and orchestra, with virtuoso Olga Scheps at the keyboard.

Beginning on November 16 in Göppingen, the musicians played in large cities like Mannheim, Dortmund, Nuremberg, Cologne, and Essen, as well as smaller cities, Kempton, Erkelenz, and Vilbel. Their programs were varied, as were the soloists; in addition to Olga Scheps, pianist Vladimir Aćimović performed in some concerts; Darius Preuss on the violin and Raphaela Gromes on the cello were two further soloists. Accordingly, some concerts featured a violin concerto by Aram Khachaturian, or a cello concerto by Edward Elgar. In all the concerts, Tchaikovsky concertos and symphonies were featured, with cello, violin, or piano. It was an ambitious project!

In Wiesbaden, their program began with Tonakan naxergank (Festive Overture for Symphony Orchestra) by Alexander Artunian, followed by Tchaikovsky’s Piano concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23. After the intermission, the orchestra presented Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.1 in G minor, Op. 13, Winter Daydreams.

The concert hall was transformed into “a venue for musical magic,” as a preview put it. And soloist Scheps confirmed it in her performance of the well-known and extremely moving piano concerto. Tchaikovsky’s symphony, which concluded the program, developed the magical quality of the Winter Daydreams, portrayed through musical images that combine the wintry atmosphere with romantic harmonies. The audience responded with thunderous applause, which led conductor Smbatyan to offer as an encore, a Khachaturyan waltz. His playful mode of conducting this, at times allowing the musicians to play without direction, brought rapturous applause again from the grateful Wiesbaden music lovers.

Musicians as Performers and Educators
The orchestra, conductor Smbatyan, and pianist Scheps are world-class musicians. The Armenian State Symphony Orchestra was created by Smbatyan, who is currently artistic director and principal conductor. Committed to the idea of the unifying power of music, Smbatyan founded the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia (SYOA), at the age of 18. That ensemble, which performed in prominent international festivals, was the precursor to today’s symphony orchestra. Those who joined the ASSO were young and talented musicians united by a commitment to enhance cultural awareness in Armenia and share the uplifting power of classical music, with a vast and varied repertoire. The orchestra performs more than 50 concerts a year, in cooperation with a large number of world class artists. It has played in major concert halls in Paris, Berlin, Moscow, The Hague, Brussels, Hamburg, and Madrid. In 2020, the orchestra toured Europe with violin virtuoso and Artist-in-Residence Maxim Vengerov, with outstanding performances hosted on renowned stages.

Equally important as its concert activities, and crucial to guaranteeing continuity and development of classical music performance, the orchestra and conductor Smbatyan have devoted major efforts to educating the younger generation of Armenians. In the framework of the DasA educational-cultural project, they have been generating interest in classical music among teenagers in Armenia. (DasA – the name: Das means lesson in Armenian, and A is the La note of the musical scale, the beginning of the “musical alphabet.”) The exciting project launched by Smbatyan and the orchestra in 2018, offers music lessons and extracurricular meetings to high school students, to acquaint them with classical music and the intellectual, spiritual, and emotional joy it provides. Since its inception DasA has given lessons to 67,000 students in 173 public schools in Armenia, and the orchestra has observed an increase of 30-40 percent more youngsters in their concert audiences.

Smbatyan himself is well known in Armenia and abroad, and has been honored with several awards; in 1916, then-RA President Serzh Sargsyan named him “Honored Artist of the Republic of Armenia,” and a year later the Yerevan Mayor presented him with a Gold Medal. In 2015, he had received the “Order of Arts and Letters of France” granted by the Minister of Culture and Communication of France.
Born in 1987 in Yerevan, into a family of musicians, he started playing the violin with his grandmother, then studied with renowned violinists Bagrat Vardanyan and Zakhar Bron. In 2009, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, and received his Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Institute of Arts, a division of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. In 2012, he graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Music as a Unifying Force
Smbatyan’s musical activities have embraced important social and political themes. In September 2016, in a project of his own, he conducted the inaugural concert of the All Armenian Choir and Orchestra “Generation of Independence.” There were 1144 Armenian musicians from different regions of Armenia and Artsakh who performed together.  And in 2015, the centennial of the Armenian genocide, he founded the 24/04 World Orchestra for Peace in 2015, and 2 years later, the Pan-Armenian Symphony Orchestra. Smbatyan has also supported charitable projects, spreading music in nursing homes, orphanages, and universities throughout Armenia.
Olga Scheps, born in Moscow, came to Germany as a child and is a German citizen. Like Smbatyan, she grew up in a musical family, and started piano lessons at the age of four. She gave her first concerts as a youngster, and soon won prizes at German competitions for young musicians in 1999 and 2001. Since then she has performed worldwide, playing with leading orchestras and in music festivals throughout Germany.