Meg Note

Belonging and love are deeply precious. In fact, without them, nothing can happen. But institutions can no longer function on these feelings alone, and neither can choirs. Love needs to be accompanied by planning, an archive, repertoire, transportation, a policy for children, consistent support.

After 1915, Armenian-language oral music split into two paths: the inward-turned voice of those who remained in Istanbul and the louder memory carried into the diaspora. The voice that remained in this city has shrunk. It withdrew from large halls into small rooms, from public squares into enclosed courtyards. But it did not disappear. Because music is the most stubborn form of existence.

When it comes to a children's choir singing in Armenian, the significance of this work becomes even greater. Because here, a child does not simply learn a melody. They connect with the sound of a language, the memory of a culture, and sometimes the warmth of a word that is no longer heard very often at home.

Rachmaninoff dedicated his romance “The Muse / Muza” to Shaginyan. In return, Shaginyan dedicated her poetry collection Orientalia, published in 1913, to Rachmaninoff. This exchange, one through music, the other through poetry, is among the most elegant traces of the relationship between the two artists.