The Vartanants Choir of Istanbul gave it final performance at the Komitas Chamber Music Hall last night. The choir was founded in 1932.

The performance was part of a pan-national music festival entitled “My Armenia” organized by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

Bishop Aram Ateshyan,   the Patriarchal Locum Tenens of Constantinople, welcomed those in the audience who had come to hear works of Komitas and other famous composers.

Ateshyan noted that many in the choir were visiting Armenia for the first time and that its members had brought honour to the Istanbul-Armenian community.

Diaspora Minister Hranoush Hakobyan then awarded the Komitas Medal to choir director Adrushan Halacian who assumed leadership of the choir in 1985.