Ter-Petrosyan visits Pantheon
First Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan visited today the Yerevan Pantheon after Komitas in order to attend a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of world-famous conductor Ohan Duryan's birth.
Among those present were friends and relatives of Duryan, as well as admirers of his art.
"He was an elder friend, a great citizen, and, of course, a unique art expert, popular with everybody. We learned a lot not only from his art, but also from his personality and his attitude towards art," actor and director Yervand Manaryan stated. In his opinion, Duryan was gullible and easy to deceive, but one also felt that one should not treat him like that.
Those present said that it was painful to think that the world-famous conductor is no longer with us.
Writer Karine Khodikyan said that thanks to his modesty and his aspiration for justice, Ohan Duryan became popular as a person and an artist. "A market would become a small rally; people would surround the maestro to give him a fruit or ask him questions about our fate". In her opinion, there are few intellectuals today whom ordinary people can approach and ask questions.
During the last years of his life the maestro was confined to bed, but he continued to participate in all events of the Armenian National Congress, considering it his duty to appeal to people from the Matenadaran rostrum and urge them to become more sober.
