Artur Meschian

Arthur Meschian is one of the greatest Armenian musicians, artists and poets. Most of us still hold the memories of those sporadic live records of Meschian and "Apostles" in 60's and 70's with lots of background echoes. Starting off as three students at Yerevan Polytechnic Institute, "Apostles" quickly raised to become the voice of the generation with their unprecedented amalgamation of Armenian folk classics and modern. Those were the 60's, time of stagnation and Soviet censure. The voice of "Apostles" like many around was heavily muffled and even banned. By the end of 80's "the iron curtain" fell and the underground movement came out of the basements. "Apostles" did not play together anymore, but Meschian was still performing in the US where he moved with his family. Next was a letter from my family in 1995, who managed to establish a good friendship with Meschian in Yerevan during one of his visits. "We've met Arthur only a week ago, but seems like we've known him for ages. He definitely is out of this world", the letter said. I guess there are people, who can not only live happily, but spread happiness all around. This is also some kind of an art to me, no less important than song-writing.