PhD, Director of the Komitas Museum-In­stitute. Kostandyan received his PhD in 2017 from the Institute of Arts of the Na­tional Academy of Sciences of RA. He is the author of a number of articles and has presented papers at various confer­ences. Kostandyan’s research is focused on the Armenian music of the Modern Era and contemporary times.

MARGARIT BABAYAN AS AN INTERPRETER OF THE FOLK SONGS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS

The role of Armenian singer (mezzo-so­prano), pianist, musicologist and peda­gogue Margarit Babayan (1874-1968) in the propaganda of the folk songs of dif­ferent peoples is significant.
She was the first to perform on concert stages the French folk songs arranged by great masters. She was the first per­former of the remarkable “Five Greek Folk Songs” written for voice and piano by French famous composer Maurice Ravel in 1904. In addition to this, by the request of M. Babayan Ravel harmonized and dedicated her the “Tripatos”- the ar­rangement for the dance-melody from the Island of Chios.
Thoroughly studying the music folklore of different peoples, M. Babayan has be­come the best interpreter of those folk songs. During her concerts M. Babayan has performed old French songs, Greek, Jewish, Spanish, Basque, Russian and Armenian folk songs, which she has all sung in the original language. The sing­er has often acted as the best interpreter and performerin the reports by Romain Rolland, Pierre Aubry, Luis Laloy, Paul-Ma­rie Masson, Komitas, Archag Tchobanian and others.