The open-air courtyard of the Royal Opera House in Muscat had been turned into a vibrant platform of sounds, performing mastery and cultural diversity. Thousands of people had gathered for the annual military music festival “Oman and the World”, which had kicked off on 5 November as part of Oman’s national celebrations.
The festival had brought together Oman’s leading military music bands, as well as performers arriving from Slovakia and Armenia. The three-day festival had combined military discipline and artistic means of expression, including solemn parades, intricate drumming performances by joint bands and traditional folk dances.
Armenia performed with a rich visual and musical programme. The Police guard brass band, led by conductor Karen Hovhannisyan, performed jointly with the Armed Forces song and dance ensemble’s “Sardarapat” state dance ensemble. The Armenian delegation’s programme moved smoothly from Edgar Hovhannisyan’s “Erebuni-Yerevan” and Ara Kevorkian’s festive brass works “Artashat” to traditional dance stagings. Among the programme’s key performances were the Armenian “Berd” dance and Aram Khachaturian’s fiery “Lezginka”. The ensemble also paid tribute by performing Charles Aznavour’s “I Saw Myself as a Star” (“I Saw Myself as a Star”).
