YEREVAN — Armenia Fund has begun modernizing an aging library in Armenia’s only music school, the Tchaikovsky School of Yerevan. Established in 1939, the Tchaikovsky School has been the starting point for many of Armenia’s most renowned musicians.
The project, initiated and financed by Armenia Fund’s Swiss affiliate, will renovate the school’s library, outfitting it with state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment, as well as new instruments, comprising seven violins, two French horns, two violas, one cello and two oboes.
“The library-renovation project, sponsored by Armenia Fund’s Swiss affiliate, is an improvement of vital importance,” explained Ara Vardanyan, executive director of the fund.
The library houses an extensive collection of recordings and offers, classrooms and rehearsal studios for students from throughout Armenia studying music in Yerevan.
“Thanks to the initiative, our young musicians will have a wonderful facility for rehearsals and classes, the high quality of which will no doubt prepare them for success across the world’s greatest stages,” said Vardanyan.
The project has students and faculty at the school excited over the prospects of teaching, studying and rehearsing in a modernized facility, with access to new instruments.
“As we’ve had to do with Soviet-era instruments for so many years, we’re overjoyed that the library will see a major upgrade thanks to our diaspora friends,” says Martun Konstandyan, the school’s principal. “We’re also gratified that the project will result in the restarting of our French horn classes, after a 20-year hiatus.”
Armen Karagyan, a senior student at the school, believes he not only stands a good chance of winning the wind-instrument competition this spring, but eventually being admitted to the prestigious Komitas Conservatory.
According to Konstandyan, the school currently has 530 students, most of who will go on to study at the Komitas Conservatory. The principal added that, as a rule, some 80 percent of the conservatory’s students are graduates of the Tchaikovsky School.
