For Ashot Jenterejyan, the grand concert stages of the past have been replaced by a new stage called Kashatagh, replete with ruined houses and pot-holed streets. In a word - a landscape where the remnants of war abound. Today, the famous violinist makes his home in Berdzor, the regional center of Kashatagh in liberated Karabakh.

Here, he spends his days imparting some of the knowledge acquired over many years of performing with the children of the town. Ashot Jenterejyan was born and raised in Yerevan. He graduated from the Choukjajyan Music School and afterwards the Komitas National Conservatory. Accompanying him on this educational journey was his twin brother Armen. As Ashot puts it, the two brothers started to perform together from the second grade but they decided to perform as a duet while engaged in their diplomatic work at the Conservatory. It was then that they first performed a two violin sonata in the Caucasus. “It was the president of the evaluations committee, a Prokoviev expert, that decided our future path in life,” Ashot Jenterejyan recounts. For the next thirty-five years the two brothers performed as a duet in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. They haven’t played together for the past five years, and now reside and work in different countries. Years ago, Armen was invited to direct the Ganatchian music school in Syria, while brother Ashot was invited to perform in the Artsakh National Chamber Orchestra. Ashot left for Artsakh with a 15 member ensemble. “I worked for three years in the orchestra but later my relations with the director and I left. Many of my friends also left. Only a few musicians remained behind. I then decided to move to Yerevan but the principle of the Berdzor Music School offered me a job teaching the violin. I gladly accepted the invitation and I haven’t looked back since,” Ashot says. For Ashot, Kashatagh has been “a new color, a new hue.””You look at the ruined buildings and suddenly see a wisp of a child come out from amongst the rubble,” it the manner in which Ashot describes the kids in Berdzor. “Sitting in Yerevan, everyone talks about patriotism, but the real patriots are living here,” the violinist states. He proudly talks about the Kashatagh intellectuals who have assembled in this town of ruins and who are creating their own future; individuals who lay out the problems being confronted and who assist in resolving them. “It’s already been three years that I am here. My pupils have learned quite a lot, studied hard, and are ready to make their way in life. I always thought about giving direction to one more Armenian child, and so I came here,” says Ashot.  He lives by himself in Berdzor. Despite the less than adequate conditions in the town, he continues to live and work here; traveling to the music school every day where his pupils await. In addition to teaching, Ashot Jenterejyan directs the Berdzor National Instrument Ensemble, created eight years ago. He has ten students at present and says that three have great promise if their parents allow them to continue their studies. After school, Ashot, who hails from a large family, fills his solitary life with a few good friends and neighbors. “To be sure, there are many problems. But I am constantly being revitalized when I see the optimism on the faces of people who have reached an age in life when you’d think they’d be down in the dumps. These are the faces I see with each new morn,” he says.