The history of Bari Choir began four years ago: five relocants looking for new meanings in a new life started gathering in the semi-basement spaces of Yerevan to simply sing their favorite songs together under the leadership of conductor Stasia Lebedeva. Today, our choir is a multinational community of more than forty people.

Over this time, we have performed at the leading venues of Armenia — the Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall, the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, and the concert hall of the Aram Khachaturian House-Museum; we have partnered with the Keron Foundation, sung even in the metro and Zvartnots Airport, and developed our very own meme culture.

When it comes to choral singing, we are amateurs, but we give it our all like true professionals — while in everyday life we are programmers, teachers, directors, editors, doctors, and musicians. Our strength lies in our courage. We are not afraid to make mistakes, try new things, or dwell on a single note for twenty minutes straight. We have created a safe space where one can experience love, despair, and homesickness, and then laugh, cry, and hug it out together.

This very same courage drives our repertoire, where academic strictness collides with pure energy. In our programs, Komitas — the sun of Armenian music — and System of a Down go hand in hand like old good akhperner, while Tsoy’s “A Star Called the Sun” easily coexists with ancient spiritual sharakans and African spirituals. We sing in Armenian, Russian, English, Spanish, Hebrew, and if needed, we will sing in Quenya.

Our conductor Diana Ayvazyan knows exactly how to unite these forty different voices and personalities. She hears every single voice and, with a single gesture of her hand, can make the choir sound like a single body with forty hearts — or bring it to an abrupt silence.

For us, Bari Choir is a way to show how much we cherish Armenia, which has become our home, its roots and culture, and at the same time, it is a way to feel connected to world music. We are happy to share our love for music and the joy of singing together with our listeners.

We host the choral concert “Ooops! More Choirs…” — an evening of choirs from Armenia and Georgia. The next one is on July 4 at the Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall.