InterUrban: #22 Gyumri (AM)

VEB2023 tendered collaboration

Armenia's second city, Gyumri, bears a small part of the country's troubled history and cultural richness.

At 1509 metres above sea level, Gyumri has been a Russian military centre, a refuge from Armenian genocide, bearing the names Alexandrapol and Leninakan. Nothing better evokes the spirit of the Caucasus, the hardened identity of the Armenians of history and the tragic beauty of their fate than the sound of the emblematic instrument, the bagpipe. Gevorg Dabaghyan's concert at InterUrban will feature the instrument, which is on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage List. The greatest Armenian composer, internationally acclaimed interpreter of Komitas and Béla Bartók, pianist Lusine Grigoryan, will also be coming to Veszprém, and with him a closer look at Armenian culture. There are some things that only music can convey most vividly, even from the most ancient home of literacy and Christianity, as InterUrban's programmes testify.