"Fact" daily writes:
Yerevan will host the "Classical Eurovision of Youth Musicians" competition, held every two years since 1982, on June 6 this year.
Our country will participate in this competition for the third time. In 2012, Armenia was represented in the competition for the first time by the kangaroo player Narek Kazazyan, and for the second time in 2024 by the oboist Hayk Hekekyan. This year, Armenia's representative in the competition is flute player Elen Virabyan. The representative of Armenia was selected as a result of winning the "Towards Classic Eurovision" contest. After the 130 applications received and the competitions lasting about two months, the jury selected 11 participants. In the final, they performed with the orchestra.
As a result, Elen Virabyan won. He participated in many competitions and won. "Fact" sources, however, note that Ellen was born and lives in the Russian Federation, has Russian citizenship and participated in various competitions as a citizen of that country. Without doubting his professional abilities and professionalism, it is puzzling to many why among all the participants who were citizens of the Republic of Armenia, preference was given to a citizen of the Russian Federation.
There is even a question: maybe this is an opportunity to bypass the European sanctions? After all, Russian citizens cannot perform under their flag during various sports and cultural competitions.
A question arose in the professional circles: the jury, which included the artistic director and chief conductor of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia Eduard Topchyan, artistic director and chief conductor of the State Chamber Orchestra of Armenia Vahagn Papyan, pianist Hayk Melikyan, concertmaster of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia Aram Asatryan, violinist Suren Hakhnazaryan, oboist, Hayk Hekekyan, Armenia's second delegate to the Eurovision Song Contest for Youth Musicians, why did he choose a musician who does not actually live in Armenia to participate in this competition, while the competition featured musicians living and studying in Armenia who could represent our country in this competition.
By the way, according to the information we have, on the day of the selection of the representative of Armenia, some of the participants were not allowed to present themselves with the works of Aram Khachatryan, which was also a reason for surprise.
They were first asked to choose works by other authors. This is also surprising from the point of view that the "Classical Eurovision for Youth Musicians" contest will be held on June 6, the birthday of composer Aram Khachatryan, so many people are puzzled why the works of the famous composer were not performed during the selection stage of the Armenian delegate to the contest held in Armenia on Aram Khachatryan's birthday.
Details in today's issue of "Past" daily.
