June 2, 2009 - 20:22 AMT
Tigran Mansouryan - pleased to see that his birthday was remembered
Outstanding Armenian composer Tigran Mansouryan, who this year celebrates his 70th birthday, is pleased that the occasion was remembered.

"Two years ago I asked myself a question: will my friends and colleagues living abroad come here to celebrate my birthday? It isn't as if they should draw up their plans beforehand. But we appeared to be late," Mansuryan said, adding that his teacher - great man and composer Ghazaros Saryan, preferred to celebrate one of his birthdays in Aram Khachaturyan's home-museum which houses over 80 people.

A man having world-wide recognition , Manusuryan finds "dream and demand to be very close to each other; they are very similar, but I don't want to make any demand."

Estimating cultural atmosphere in Armenia, the composer noted, "We recently observed considerable efforts towards development of classical music in the country, but we are facing a serious task: to make classical music and high art accessible to our public in its everyday life."

Any unfairness, be it of minor importance, hurts the composer. "Our strength and unity are already known; our losses are already visible. I want our society to be governed by rule of law, and everybody do what he is required to."