Concert Preparations (Take 2)

Phone calls, PR, Marketing, Mingling, Strumming, Singing, ahhhh the joys and excitment that lead up to a performance! I now have two large billboards up in the city centre - one at the Opera and one near Kino Moscow (see photo where I am visibly uncomfortable POSING alongside the billboard to give an idea of the size of the thing). I will do the diasporan "Hotline" show this Friday which gets broadcast internationally to promote the CD release of "Janapar" - I think I will also have them run the music video "Hambuyr". All is well so far in the line of giving this a better shot. The best news of all is that the British Council has agreed to sponsor me for part of the costs of the concert. They have agreed to pay for the musicians which is a significant portion of the expenses. So! With decent ticket sales we might even break even! My relief is of a very grand scale and I must say a special thank you to Manoog Caprelian who was kind enough to suit up and come with me and make a fantastic impression on the Council. As of yesterday, the CD is available in most CD shops in the Yerevan city centre, it is downloadable from mperia.com and should shortly be avaialable on cdbaby.com as well. It can be previewed on hamovhotov.com too - a great little website coming out of California.
Monday morning is another morning talk show on Nor Alik/Channel 1. I reckon there will be a few more before the show. Also with postponing the date it seems I will have all the same musicians as those who played on the CD so it will be wonderful to celebrate both evenings with them.
On the social front I got to see a superb unplugged evening at Stop Club with Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Artyom Manoukyan, and Vahak (their keyboardist). It was unlike their folk club gigs and really was about the big boys having a jam session in someone's basement. It was incredibly special. The mixture of rhythms, ideas, sounds - a true work of genius tinged with insanity - wonderful.
I had a Friday evening with the British Alumni Association which composes of young Armenian professionals who have studied in the UK and have now returned home (Armenia) to work. They are a great bunch of people and I will be joining them regularly as I was impressed by the numbers of movers and shakers in the group who are really doing something for Armenia. It was a priviledge to be welcomed as a member.
Finally I had the pleasure of playing/jamming with other young musicians who are here. One in particular - my friend Andre Simonian is also here in Armenia doing music and it has been wonderful to have evenings where we play guitar or jam with his musicians. There is an incredible amount of talent here and I am excited to be meeting and working with these people. I feel alive again. It is good to be back.
I am meeting with the mayor of the village tomorrow and will find out about the progress of the work in the school. Apart from that I hope to dodge the city this weekend and maybe get out and catch the foliage. After all - autumn is my favourite season. Would be nice to sit in peace for a day! I must say we've had two massive rainbows over Yerevan this week - I love to see them. I always remember about God's promise of peace when I see them. Rainbows do put me at peace!
Will try and get up a photo of the billboard and other concert stuff. Trying to get photos on the computer of the massive Charles Aznavour concert that took place last weekend but I am sure cilicia.com has provided some for show. Will go and check them out actually.
Till the next time...
Peace and love
Sonya