FORUM SYNOPSIS:
HOVER CHOIR
On Wednesday, June 13, 2007, Birthright Armenia participants had an opportunity to be present at the practice of the famous “Hover” chamber choir for the forum lecture. The practice was at the opera building.
After welcoming their guests, “Hover” sang both spiritual and folk songs from their repertoire. Artistic director and conductor Ms. Sona Hovhannisian briefly introduced the history of the choir and presented information about Armenian sacred and secular choral music.
“Hover” was founded in 1992 on a personal initiative and is considered to be an experimental choir. “We try to expand our fields of work and to experiment with different styles of music such as Armenian spiritual and folk songs, modern music and European classical music. Our range of offerings even includes musical presentations of medieval Armenian parables using song, theater, narrative and dance” stated Hovhannisian.
During the first ten years, “Hover” singers where working as volunteers. However after successful performances at various festivals around Europe, the group was able to corral sponsorships, and started paying its core of 24 singers. The group is slated to travel to the UK at the end of the year.
While talking about the Armenian music tradition, Ms.Hovhannisian stated: “Our musical tradition is one of the oldest in the world and it has gone through an interesting turn of events. Unfortunately the history that our nation faced over the centuries has also influenced the development of our musical heritage, interrupting it numerous times. Towards the end of the 19th century, along came Komitas Vartaped (featured in the Spring 2007 Newsletter). He is considered to be a giant of both Armenian sacred and secular music, and is one of the founders of the polyphonic Armenian choral genre. Hovhanissian added “The Norwegians had Grieg, the Hungarians had Bartok, the French had Debussy. We have Komitas. His influence on modern Armenian music is immeasurable”
As a parting gift for the volunteers, the choir delved into its colorful repertoire and presented a medley of Beatles and Cole Porter tunes.
