Concept: Komitas Vardapet

During his lifetime, Komitas Vardapet documented his own singings using a phonograph, which was a rarity at that time. We are sure that he would be thrilled to explore today's technical possibilities in order to overcome artistic, cultural, or physical boundaries.

Komitas' repertoire as a composer and arranger offers great opportunities to present a diverse program of art songs, folk songs, liturgies, polyphonic choral singing and church music.

So we couldn't help but develop a concept for a multi-site concert to honour his incredible work.

The concert is intended to be realized as a cooperation of the National Research and Education Networks ASNET-AM (Armenia), ACOnet (Austria), GARR (Italy), and international venues and artists.

Komitas Vardapet (Soghomon Soghomonian, 1869 – 1935) was an Armenian composer, musician, ethnographer, scientist, conductor, singer, teacher, publicist and poet, and founder of Armenian classical music and Armenian composing school.

Born in 1869 in Kütahya, he studied in Etchmiadzin, Tbilisi and Berlin. He lived in Paris, Venice and Constantinople, among other places.

There is no doubt that he deeply influenced his environment wherever he was. His students, his audiences and his colleagues adored him equally.

Komitas dedicated his life to Armenian spiritual and folk music. He published numerous and highly regarded articles in specialist journals. His work as a musicologist, choirmaster, arranger and composer was accompanied by countless press releases and announcements in international newspapers. Komitas was a priest of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Even though his equal love for church and folk music led to controversies, he never tired of teaching against disdain and prejudice towards peasant music (at that time considered weak and sinful). As a skilled teacher and lecturer he tried to teach connecting elements, and to explain the different cultural influences in melodies and songs.

As a choir director he succeeded in forming choirs of several hundred singers. These choirs also supported and included female singers, which was not a matter of course for the church music of the time. Their acclaimed tours led them through the Ottoman Empire and Europe, and they also followed an invitation to Alexandria.

However, his brilliant creative period ended abruptly in 1915 with the Armenian Genocide. He survived, but not only his physical condition worsened extremely. From 1916 until his death he spent his time in various psychiatric institutes in Constantinople and France, where he died in 1935.

The transmission of signals (mostly uncompressed) between different places in order to create multi-site performances in real time is one thing. Beyond that, there must be an added value for the artistic content.

If we cannot avoid transmission latencies, we have to integrate them – this applies not only to musical expression but also to all other forms of performing art.

The state-of-the-art technologies are incredibly fascinating. Working with (and not against) the internet opens exciting challenges for creativity and new approaches to the interpretation of artistic themes.

Our NREN colleagues from Italy (GARR) and the Czech Republic (CESNET) will join us to develop a truly multimedia audio-visual concept.

• We will bring international musicians together in order to honour Komitas Vardapet and to celebrate his spirit, his soul and his courage.
• We will learn from his music and once more surprise our audience with the experience of the artistic and technical challenges of live music events in real time at distributed locations.
• If financially feasible, we will produce a livestream to reach as many audiences as possible around the globe.

The planned venues all have a special connection to Komitas Vardapet:

Komitas was Armenian, so it is obvious to choose Armenia as a concert venue.

Fortunately, our network partners in Armenia (ASNET-AM and IIAP, see below) strive to intensify the cooperation of Armenian organizations (both nationally and internationally) and to offer Armenia's musicians, artists and scientists as many opportunities as possible to explore the capabilities of modern AV streaming technologies. Therefore, they are gladly willing to provide LoLa equipment as well as the network and technical support.

In 1907, Komitas visited and studied in Venice for three weeks. San Lazzaro degli Armeni, a small island in the Venetian Lagoon, accommodates the headquarters and, as such, one of the most important cultural centers of the Mekhitarist congregation. Here you will also find the death mask of Komitas Vardapet.

Venice culturally benefits from the influence and extensive collection of Armenian art and culture, which has been preserved in the monastery for centuries.

For organizational reasons we will nevertheless choose a venue directly in Venice.

The multi-site concert in honor of Komitas Vardapet is a joint project of the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) ASNET-AM, ACOnet and GARR. Negotiations with specific venues and artists are ongoing. Once details are set, we will post them here.