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Tigran Jager's "March of Mars" has completed the international Starmus Festival in Yerevan

Writer's picture: Nadia JaGerNadia JaGer

Updated: Apr 9, 2023

Tigran Jager's composition "March of Mars" by the participant of the international socio-cultural initiative "Human Time" was performed at the closing of the Starmus festival on September 11 at the site of a scientific camp near the Yerevan Opera House in the presence of the founder of the festival Garik Israelian and a number of other figures. It became the only new composition dedicated directly to the theme of the exploration of Mars and prepared for the festival in Yerevan.


This international festival is about music, science and space. It was held in Yerevan for the first time with the participation of eight Nobel laureates and world pop stars – Brian May, Serge Tankian, Montserrat Marti Caballe.


The theme of the festival was the 50th anniversary of the exploration of Mars - it began with the launch of the USSR satellites to the red planet. Composer Tigran Jager, the author of Armenian origin and a composer of cosmological neosymphonies, also became a participant in this grandiose event. His neoclassical work "March of Mars", which he dedicated to the theme of the festival and the concept of "Human Time", was performed as part of the scientific part of the event - Starmus Science Camp - on the square in front of the Yerevan Opera House.


"I am glad that my work has become a part of a major international event, which was attended by world-class stars. In my neosymphony march I reflected the idea that Mars has become a measure of the development of human civilization - not only technological, but also ethical. This planet, which has symbolized the god of war for centuries, should finally become a point of transition to nuclear—free energy and conflict-free information, reason and wisdom. The composition has both a slow part in the style of processions of ancient Greece, as well as those used by Wagner and Mozart, and a classical active marching", Tigran Jager described the idea of his work.
Tigran Jager with astrophysicist, Professor Garik Israelian (in the center), administrator of composer Nadia JaGer (on the right) and other Starmus festival participants near the Opera House in Yerevan after the performance of the "March of Mars", September 11, 2022
Tigran Jager near the Opera House in Yerevan after performing his work "March of Mars" at the closing of the Starmus Festival, September 11, 2022.
Tigran Jager near the Opera House in Yerevan after performing his work "March of Mars" at the closing of the Starmus Festival, September 11, 2022.

ABOUT THE STARMUS FESTIVAL The first Starmus festival took place in 2011 on the Spanish island of Tenerife, then in Norway, Switzerland. Legends of astrophysics, cosmonauts and music stood at the origins: astrophysicist, Professor Garik Israelian, scientist-educator Stephen Hawking, cosmonaut of the USSR and the Russian Federation Alexey Leonov, as well as Brian May, who is known primarily as the famous guitarist of the band Queen, but he is both a doctor of philosophy and a famous astrophysicist. The founding Fathers had the idea of using popular music to attract attention of young people to achievements in the field of science, education, technology. In 2022, the festival was held for the first time outside Western Europe and in the post-Soviet space - in Armenia. It was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Soviet Mars-3 interplanetary automatic station, which included the robot rover PrOP-M, developed by talented soviet-armenian engineer Alexander Kemurdzhian. The main days of the festival were held on September 5-9, the entire program covered August 31 - September 11. More than 50 scientists and cosmonauts came here: Chris Hadfield, social media-sensation; Charles Duke (Apollo 16), the youngest man to walk on the moon; James Bagian, a former astronaut of Armenian descent; Charles Bolden Jr., the former head of NASA; Tony Fadell, iPod creator; Brian Greene, physicist and science communicator. In addition, Starmus has featured a wide selection of Nobel Laureate scientists such as Kip Thorne, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Donna Strickland. Among the artists who performed at the festival in Yerevan were rock legends Brian May (he is the member of the Starmus Festival Board of Directors), Rick Wakeman, Serj Tankian, Derek Sherinian with Sons of Apollo, opera singer Montserrat Martí, Andrey Makarevich, Tigran Hamasyan, Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Jivan Gasparyan - junior, Children and Youth Choir of the Tavush diocese. Brian May, Jane Goodall, Diane Ackerman and the NASA Communications Unit announced as Winners of the Stephen Hawking Medal at Starmus VI Armenia at the official opening of the festival at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex on September 5. At the campsite near the Yerevan Opera Theatre, the Starmus scientific camp [19] was set up - a tent city for schoolchildren and students. Here they were read entertaining lectures, showed experiments on astrophysics, laser technologies, unmanned vehicles and robotics, talked about agronomy, how to deal with epidemics. It also hosted concerts by artists from all over the world.

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