by Christopher Atamian
The United Nations often gets a bad rap. Founded in 1945 amidst the ashes of World War II as the successor organization to The League of Nations, the U.N. has increasingly come under attack from a whole host of mainly right-wing and libertarian forces, as well as people who believe that all forms of globalism simply represent an updated version of cosmopolitan meddling. Naysayers accuse the U.N. of being inefficient and generally superfluous, although it is the only global organization working on so many important issues and themes, from poverty and gender equality to children’s rights (UNICEF) and peace keeping efforts.
March 16 Concert Picture
On March 16, a gala concert showcasing the Hover State Chamber Choir of Armenia organized by the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations at Alice Tully Hall highlighted why the U.N. is in fact so important. Armenia marked its 1991 independence from the Soviet Union in many ways: one was raising its flag at the U.N. on March 2, 1992, symbolically marking its entry into the family of nations. Given that Armenians in the past century alone have suffered a mass genocide, Sovietization, and a crippling earthquake, the sight was enough to reduce many onlookers to tears. In the intervening quarter century, the United Nations has not let Armenia down through direct aid and its many affiliated NGOs. It has contributed to the country’s development in fields as diverse as democratic governance, sustainable development, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability. Specific programs recently instituted in Armenia by the UN and its development system include distributing high quality wheat seeds in the Tavush, Shirak and Syunik regions of the country in order to improve agricultural productivity; providing heating to close to a hundred large apartment buildings so that people would not literally freeze to death or emigrate; helping the country to install plastic waste recycling facilities, and finally contributing to the Armenian government’s small and medium enterprise development initiative, considered crucial to the country’s economic growth.
And within the U.N. itself, Armenia has also been remarkably active. In 2015—a year dedicated to women—the Armenian Mission along with the Armenian Relief Society hosted a series of events centered around women’s rights and development, and organized an exhibit titled “Stitching to Survive: Handiwork of Armenian Women.” The Armenian Mission and its representatives have also lobbied for a systematic global policy of genocide prevention and have been key players in addressing resulting post-traumatic inter-generational stresses and how the issue should be tackled psychologically, financially and legally in the future. Recently it has been vocal in supporting and helping to repatriate Syrian refugees.
The March 16 concert, organized under the leadership of Armenia’s U.N. Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and which officially celebrated 25 years of membership in the U.N., delivered one of the most memorable musical presentations in recent memory. Led by the remarkable conductor Sona Hovhanissyan, the Hover (winds in Armenian) choir performed traditional Armenian folk and sacred music such as Kali Yerg (The Plowman’s Song) and the sharakan or liturgical song Hymn of the Dawn, as well as new compositions with brio and finesse. Hovhanissyan is one of the most accomplished conductors on the contemporary world scene and should by all rights be conducting the Armenian Philharmonic. The Hover singers were accompanied by two remarkable pianists: Vahagn Hayrapetyan and Vardan Ovsepian, as well as the Artyom Manukyan trio, Joshua Davis and Karen Kocharyan. Saxophonist Armen Hyusnunts displayed an uncanny ability to riff and integrate modern and old melodies—he is a standout on this particular instrument. And virtuoso duduk player Jivan Gasparian Jr. seems well on his way to emulating his grandfather Jivan’s prowess on that traditional Armenian instrument, which resembles the oboe. At times the musicians accompanied the choir: at others they delivered solos, sometimes powerful and blistering, at others soft and muted.
U.N. Headquarters in New York CIty
The ensemble took a packed crowd of U.N. and lay audience members on a remarkable 90-minute musical journey. The music was accompanied by a sophisticated video collaboration between photographer Karen Mirzoyan and local stage director Eric Hill: images of Armenian landscapes and monasteries were projected behind the singers and moved slowly in different directions, which gave one the impression of actually travelling along a road with the singers and musicians. At the end of the concert, attendees rose to their feet and cheered. American Virtuosi founder and Executive Director Kenneth Hamrick was ebullient: “They are possibly the best a capella group in the world along with the Netherlands Chamber Choir. There’s certainly nothing quite so precise and masterful anywhere in the United States.” These elements, according to Hamrick, included: “Perfect pitch and training (…) That clever transition using the bells and their ability to mix a capella with piano and jazz were impressive. And they presented their culture so well, unabashedly affirming their Christian roots. My hat goes off to them.”
The Hover Chamber Choir
Due to the recent increase in humanitarian crises around the world, the U.N. has been forced to allocate funds once anticipated for development programs to humanitarian aid. This along with possible cuts in U.S. funding under the Trump administration, has representatives of emerging economies worried. As Sofya Symonyan of the Armenian Mission in New York points out: “It is our hope that the U.N. can grow its base of predictable, regular funding. They have been enormously helpful to our country and others in our region over the past two decades.” We tend to think of organizations like the United Nations as one-way streets going from donor to recipient nations. But in our increasingly interconnected world, the United Nations’ commitment to sustainable development and the eradication of poverty and disease benefits all nations. And as the Hover choir demonstrated on March 16, even the smallest nations can make great contributions to the world if given the opportunity. Hopefully this important message will make itself heard loud and clear in coming years.