State Chamber Choir of Armenia
LOS ANGELES – Plans and preparations are already underway for the RACHFEST 2017 International Festival to be held in Los Angeles County February 10 – 19, 2017. This will be an exceptional and rare opportunity to showcase the Republic of Armenia and Armenian arts next year in the United States.
The RACHEST 2017 Festival project is presented by International Competitions and Festivals, Inc. in collaboration and co-sponsorship with the Glendale Arts and the Music Department of the Glendale Community College.
The ten day International Festival program will include an art exhibition of several prominent contemporary artists from Armenia. The exhibition artwork would be available thanks to the efforts of Karen Aghamyan, President of the Artists Union of Armenia. The Festival program will also include the premier performance in the United States of a choral concert by the State Chamber Choir of Armenia, and a symphonic concert featuring music of Armenian composers.
Several local based Armenian organizations and their representatives, among them the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Association of western region expressed their interest and commitment to provide necessary support for the successful presentation of this unique festival.
A major highlight of the RACHFEST 2017 program will be the Rachmaninoff International Piano competition for young pianists from around the world.
Competitors will compete for cash prizes for over $25,000. The final rounds of the competition with the symphony orchestra will be held at the Alex Theatre in Glendale.
In previous years, RACHFEST Festivals were successfully held in the Cities of Pasadena and Los Angeles to great acclaim, receiving positive reviews in the international and local press.
For further information on the progress and plans for the RACHFEST 2017 International Festival, please contact International Competitions and Festivals at (626) 888-2103 or by email: info@rachfest.org.
About International Competitions and Festivals, Inc.
Producer of the RACHFEST 2017, The International Competitions and Festivals, Inc. (ICF) is California based 501 (c) 3 nonprofit corporation established in 1999.
Since 1999 ICF presented several major international events in greater Los Angeles area. Among them Six International Piano Symposiums (at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Azusa University and at the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles), Aram Khachaturian Ballet “Spartacus” with world famous choreographer Yury Grigorovich and his Ballet company, “Nutcracker” ballet by Bolshoi Ballet Academy, three Rachmaninoff International Piano Competitions and Festivals and several concerts and master classes by world renowned musicians.
Programs presented by ICF received numerous positive reviews in the international and local press.
The International Competitions and Festivals, Inc. also provides free educational opportunities with organizing free concerts and lectures for the Los Angeles, Pasadena and Glendale unified school districts and generously provides complimentary tickets to underprivileged school children and their families.
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Sergei Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of all time and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Rachmaninoff was a Russian-born composer who later in life became an American citizen. As a performer, composer, and conductor, Rachmaninoff is remembered as one of the true artistic geniuses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century era.
Rachmaninoff made his first tour of the United States as a pianist in 1909, an event for which he composed now famous the Piano Concerto No. 3.
A list of compositions by Rachmaninoff includes four piano concertos and The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Works for piano solo include Prelude in C-sharp minor, Études-Tableaux, Six moments musicaux the Variations on a Theme of Chopin and the Variations on a Theme of Corelli.
Rachmaninoff also wrote two major a cappella choral works—the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the All-Night Vigil (also known as the Vespers). Other choral works include a choral symphony, The Bells; the cantata Spring; the Three Russian Songs; and an early Concerto for Choir (a cappella). Rachmaninoff also composed a number of works for orchestra alone. The three symphonies: No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 (1895), No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27 (1907), and No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 (1935–36).
Rachmaninoff died on 28 March 1943, in Beverly Hills, California, just four days before his 70th birthday.
Source: Asbarez
Link: RACHFEST 2017 International Festival to be Held in LA February 2017
