Tue, 29 April
16.1 C
Yerevan
USD: 389.46 RUB: 4.73 EUR: 441.92 GEL: 141.70 GBP: 519.38
spot_img

Armenia’s central bank puts in circulation silver commemorative coins dedicated to composer Komitas

YEREVAN, September 26. /ARКА/. Armenia’s Central Bank has put in circulation today 500 silver commemorative coins dedicated to the 150th birth anniversary of great Armenian composer Komitas.
The obverse of the coin depicts sketches made by Komitas, episodes of the first printed edition of the National Anthem (1891). The reverse depicts a portrait of the composer, a contour of the Gevorkian Seminary and images of Armenian and European musical notes.

The nominal value of the coin is 1000 drams. The coin was designed by Vardan Vardanyan and Eduard Kurghinyan. They were minted in Lithuania.

Soghomon Soghomonian, (ordained and commonly known as Komitas, was an Armenian priest, musicologist, composer, arranger, singer and choirmaster. He is considered the founder of the Armenian national school of music and is recognized as a pioneer of ethnomusicology.

Orphaned at a young age, Komitas was taken to Etchmiadzin, Armenia’s religious center, where he received education at the Gevorkian Seminary. Following his ordination as vardapet (celibate priest) in 1895, he studied music in Berlin. He thereafter “used his Western training to build a national tradition”.

He collected and transcribed over 3,000 pieces of Armenian folk music, more than half of which were subsequently lost and only around 1,200 are now extant. His choir presented Armenian music in many European cities, earning the praise of Debussy, among others. Komitas settled in Constantinople in 1910 to escape mistreatment by ultra-conservative clergymen at Etchmiadzin and to introduce Armenian folk music to wider audiences.

During the Armenian genocide—along with hundreds of other Armenian intellectuals—Komitas was arrested and deported to a prison camp in April 1915 by the Ottoman government. He was soon released under unclear circumstances and experienced a mental breakdown.

The widespread hostile environment in Constantinople and reports of mass-scale Armenian death marches and massacres that reached him further worsened his fragile mental state. He was first placed in a Turkish military-operated hospital until 1919 and then transferred to psychiatric hospital in Paris, where he spent the last years of his life in agony. Komitas is widely seen as a martyr of the genocide and has been depicted as one of the main symbols of the Armenian Genocide in art. -0-

spot_img

POPULAR

Armenia may access $25 mln from the IMF under the SBA agreement in June

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Iva Petrova visited Yerevan from March 31 to April 10, 2025, to conduct discussions for the fifth review under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with Armenia.

Euro exchange rate down 1 point, while US dollar and ruble up

The average market exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to the Armenian dram on April 25, 2025, rose by 0.77 points compared to April 23 and amounted to AMD 390.33.

Armenia Enters Top 10 Countries in the World with Lowest Inflation in 2024 – IMF

Armenia was among the top 10 countries in the world with the lowest annual inflation in 2024. Such data is provided in an IMF study on 156 countries.

In Armenia, remittances have begun to recover after a 35% decline in 2024

On the demand side, average real wages in Armenia have increased in 2025, and net money transfers have shown an upward trend, contributing to consumption growth, according to the World Bank's Armenia Monthly Economic Update – April 2025.

Instruments for supporting SMEs in Armenia were discussed with bankers at the Ministry of Economy

Financial instruments for supporting small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) were discussed by Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia Lilia Sirakanyan and bank representatives.

LATEST NEWS

spot_imgspot_imgspot_img