As Marianna Gevorgyan strikes her fingers gently over the numerous carefully organized strings, she nudges them gently with minute, swish plucks.
Behind her, the wind rustles by means of a bamboo grove, creating tender murmurs, virtually gelling with the sunshine strains from her Qanun. Just as with nature, she has a approach of reaching a kind of communion with the individuals round her, even after they don’t communicate a language recognized to her. Language has not been a barrier for this Armenian musician who has been collaborating with musicians from Japan, China, India and a bunch of different international locations.
Marianna, who was within the capital metropolis to carry out on the ‘Wow Women Week’, organised by the Kerala Arts and Crafts Village as a part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, has been an envoy for Qanun (Kanun), an oriental stringed instrument that traces its origins to the previous Assyrian empire. Indians can be extra aware of the Santoor, its distant cousin, resembling it in look and within the texture of the sound it produces. Marianna shared the story of her musical journey with The Hindu, utilizing fastidiously strung collectively phrases in English, a language she is simply vaguely aware of.
“I joined music faculty after I was simply seven years previous. Initially, I began with the violin and was very energetic within the kids’s philharmonic orchestra. Later, I entered the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, an Armenian government-run musical training establishment, after I was nonetheless very younger. Since these days, I’ve been collaborating and performing in concert events with numerous musicians,” she says.
In Armenia, a few of her notable performances lately have been with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia and the Tagharan historical music ensemble. At the World Folk Vision competition in 2020, by which musicians from 115 international locations participated, she gained the grand prix within the ‘Music of the Nations’ class. But, collaborations with musicians from internationally enjoying quite a lot of devices varieties the main a part of her works.
Even her live performance in Thiruvananthapuram had her collaborating with a set of native musicians—darbuk participant Jishnu, tablist Mahesh, keyboardist Rohith, and vocalist Amritha, a gaggle which she now calls “my Indian band”. Earlier, she had collaborated for on-line performances with tablist Amit Mishra and others. Rock musician Jay Pillai of the band Lazie J, who’s a part of an giant neighborhood of unbiased artistes, instructed her identify to the organisers of the competition right here.
“I don’t know any of their languages, however I can comfortably play with these artists from internationally. Generally, I learn so much about numerous pure cultures, music and movies. At dwelling, we watch a variety of Indian films. My mom, particularly, watches the 2 Indian channels out there on our tv recurrently,” she says.
The musical influences from all of the artists she has collaborated with has mirrored in her personal music too, though she typically goes again to re-interpreting traditional compositions by Paganini, Chopin, and fairly a number of others.
“I don’t play solely sheets or notes. I play history. This is my history, as effectively that of my nation,” says Marianna.