Concert in Vilnius dedicated to the 29th Anniversary of Independence of Armenia

On September 18, upon the initiative of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Lithuania and Honorary Consulate of Armenia in Vilnius, an exclusive concert և reception was held at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, the 29th anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian-Lithuanian friendship, personified by Gegham Grigoryan.

Among the guests were Lithuanian Minister of Health Aurelijus Veryga, His Grace Bishop Vardan Navasardyan, Primate of the Armenian Diocese of the Baltic States, Archbishop of Vilnius Gintaras Grušas, high-ranking officials from Foreign Ministry, diplomats accredited in Lithuania, as well as representatives of the Armenian community.

During the reception preceding the concert, Armenian Ambassador to Lithuania Tigran Mkrtchyan and Honorary Consul Karapet Babayan delivered welcoming speeches. Ambassador Mkrtchyan presented the achievements of the Armenian-Lithuanian relations in the past year, touched upon the programs postponed due to the epidemic. The Ambassador especially thanked the Lithuanian Minister of Health for the great humanitarian assistance provided by Lithuania to Armenia during the epidemic, as well as thanked the team of Lithuanian doctors who visited Armenia and their head Marius Ciurlionis.

In his welcoming speech at the opening of the concert, Ambassador Tigran Mkrtchyan mentioned the great concert celebrates three interconnected anniversaries. The Ambassador greatly emphasized the role of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia adopted on August 23, 1990 and the Lithuanian Independence Restoration Act adopted on March 11 of the same year in the agreement of mutual recognition of each other, signed on August 14, 1991. According to that, Lithuania became the first country in the world to recognize Armenia’s independence, and Armenia became the seventh country to recognize Lithuania’s independence. The ambassador emphasized that it happened a few days before the 1991 Soviet coup d’etat attempt, which further values the fact of mutual recognition.

Tigran Mkrtchyan mentioned that the role of individuals was great in building such friendship, in establishing close ties between the two countries and peoples. And one of the strongest pillars of the Armenian-Lithuanian friendship undoubtedly was Gegham Grigoryan, who had performed at the Lithuanian Opera House for about a decade, starting from 1980. Tigran Mkrtchyan added that all the main participants of the concert – conductor Vardan Girgoryan, world-famous opera singer Asmik Grigoryan (soprano), who is the shared pride of Lithuanians and Armenians, opera singers Barsegh Tumanyan (bass) and Hovhannes Ayvazyan (tenor) – all of them are closely related to Gegham Grigoryan (Vardan և Hasmik Grigoryans are the latter’s children, Barsegh Tumanyan is his friend), and that makes the concert even more symbolic.

Ambassador Mkrtchyan noted that it is a great honor for the Republic of Armenia that this concert marks the opening of the 101st concert season of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.

The programme of the concert, which included some of the best pieces of world and Armenian opera works, was concluded by a recording of a Lithuanian classical work performed by Gegham Grigoryan.