On June 16, 2017, the courtyard of the Saint George Cathedral in Tbilisi was turned into an open-air concert hall, where “Sayat-Nova” festival kicked off. The festival is being held for the 2nd time by the initiative of ‘Music of Armenia’. The aim of the festival is to present the Armenian musical art, rich heritage of Sayat-Nova and the ashik culture to the public and maintain it. The festival is also a means to reassess the Armenian rich musical heritage.

Among those attending were First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Georgia, Artur Sargsyan; representative of Initiatives for Development of Armenia (IDeA) Foundation, Artur Amirkhanyan; guests from Yerevan and Rustavi, many tourists, Armenian civil society representatives of Tbilisi. The attendees bowed before the tomb of the great poet and musician Sayat-Nova, buried in the church courtyard.

Hasmik Movsisyan, the founding director of Music of Armenian Ltd., gave opening remarks. Highlighting the activities of the organization, the organizer of the festival mentioned the four main directions of the events, which are being implemented by the organization throughout a year, following the initiative to modernize and revitalize the Armenian musical art. The speaker mentioned the Tsovits Tsov Hayastan festival (meaning From Sea to Sea Armenia), the Sayat-Nova festival, the Sharakan festival and Musical Yerevan festival; each festival is dedicated to one musical genre.

A new band comprised of Armenian and Georgia musicians gave performances on the Armenian duduk, tar and kamancha in the courtyard of the Saint George Cathedral. The band had been formed by the musicians of the “Jnar” Armenian Ensemble (led by Hovik Sahakyan) and the “Ksovrelebi” Georgian Ensemble (led by Eldar Shoshitashvili). Especially warmly were met bilingual (Georgian-Armenian) musical performances, which were presented by the soloists.

The festival repertoire list included the songs of Sheram, Havasi and Jivani. Initiatives for Development of Armenia (IDeA) Foundation, the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Culture, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), Silk Road Hotel, Megerian Carpet Company, Fabrika Hotel and gg taxi are the partners of the festival.

Kicking off in Tbilisi, the festival will end in Yerevan, within a few days uniting Armenian and Georgian musicians, who preserve the music of Sayat-Nova and ashik art.