Hayk Melikyan Opens the 5th Festival of Armenian Culture in Katowice

On 3 September, the 5th Festival of Armenian Culture — the largest recurring event dedicated to Armenian culture in Europe — was ceremonially opened at the concert hall of the Silesian Philharmonic in Poland. The opening concert featured the internationally acclaimed pianist and Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia Hayk Melikyan, who performed Aram Khachaturian's Piano Concerto — a work marking the 90th anniversary of its composition this year — with the Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Alexandr Iradyan. The programme also included works by Polish composers Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Stanisław Moniuszko.

A packed hall greeted the performance of the Concerto with a prolonged standing ovation, to which Hayk Melikyan responded with Komitas's "Shushiki" as an encore. Excerpts of the concert were broadcast live on TVP3, Poland's public television, and the event was covered by leading Polish media.

The concert was attended by senior representatives of Polish state and cultural institutions, as well as by Krzysztof Penderecki's sister, Barbara Penderecka-Piotrowska, and the composer's cousin, Krzysztof Korwin-Piotrowski, both of whom travelled to Katowice specially for the occasion.

The festival is held under the honorary patronage of Marta Cienkowska, Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland; Zhanna Andreasyan, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia; and Joanna Bojczuk, Vice-Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship. The organiser and driving force behind the festival is Hrachya Boyajyan, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Poland, who has for years worked consistently to present Armenian culture in Poland. Musicologist Piotr Oczkowski made a significant professional contribution to the realisation of the concert.

Zareh Sinanyan, High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, also delivered opening remarks at the concert.